Gate piers near Hamstead Marshall (8)
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Gate piers near Hamstead Marshall (8) by Stephen Richards as part of the Geograph project.
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Gate piers near Hamstead Marshall (8)
Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: Unknown
Gate piers of Hamstead Marshall House, a major Berkshire mansion built in 1661-65 and destroyed by fire in 1718. They are of stone, with carved panels of fruit and flowers and topped by urns with carved festoons. Possibly designed by Edward Pierce or Thomas Strong in c1675. Grade I listed. Eight of the nine sets of gate piers stand in situ, indicating the extent of the former house and gardens. They are now a rather poignant sight, most of them isolated in the middle of fields and parkland like orphaned children. Pevsner described them as 'pathetic', others have described them as 'clumsy', 'the finest piers of their kind in England', and as expressing 'a sense of vanished magnificence'. The ninth set, which stood outside the main entrance, was moved in the late C18th to nearby Benham Park (Image]). Information partly from "Craven Country, the story of Hamstead Marshall" by Penelope Stokes. The adjacent late-C17th/early-C18th wall is convexly curved and punctuated by arched niches. Behind stands a beautiful Cedar of Lebanon.
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Image Location
Latitude
51.397077
Longitude
-1.399555