Description

CASTLE ASHBY CASTLE ASHBY PARK
SP8659
13/41 The Menagerie
03/05/68

- II*

Garden building. Begun 1761 (contract signed October 1761), certainly no later
than 1774, with alterations of c.1840 to rear. Limestone ashlar, lead and slate
roofs. Tripartite plan. Single storey; 7 bays. Central 5-bay segmental portico
with 4 Tuscan columns and pilasters either end approached by 3 moulded stone
steps. Triple-stepped bases to columns which bear plain frieze with paterae
above columns and to centre of lintels, deep moulded cornice with elements of
Roman Doric cornice, blocking cornice, and cast-iron ogee-section gutter to base
of lead-covered dome. Dome has slight ogee profile and is crowned by dragon
supporter bearing armorial shield, both of lead. Curved rear wall of portico,
with different radius to that of portico, forms elliptical space and is divided
into 5 bays by pilasters supporting frieze with paterae. Round-headed niches to
upper level of 3 central bays containing bronzed plaster busts, casts after the
antique, one of which is now missing. Stone-paved floor to portico, fitted wood
bench within and low cast-iron railings between columns with gate to central
bay. Single-bay wings either side, slightly set back with round-arched sash
windows set in shallow round-arched recesses. Portico cornice is continued over
wings, with blocking cornices with recumbant lions looking out either end. Brick
cottage to rear extensively altered or rebuilt c.1840. Design of Menagerie is
attributed to Lancelot "Capability" Brown for 8th Earl of Northampton. Brown's
plan for the landscaping of the park, begun 1764, in Castle Ashby archives,
shows no building on site of Menagerie. Robert Adam's plan for improvements to
the park of 1760 does however show a garden temple near the site, although the
building shown on the plan has no particular resemblance to the Menagerie. As
executed it is notably more advanced in its neo-classical design than Brown's
Kentian-style Dairy (q.v.). (Castle Ashby park and gardens are included with
HBMC Register of Parks and Gardens for Northamptonshire at Grade I; Buildings of
England: Northamptonshire: 1973, p144; Castle Ashby Archives; Lucinda Lambton
"Beastly Buildings": the National Trust book of Architecture for Animals: 1985,
p142)

Listing NGR: SP8683059378

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545283

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)