Eighteenth century landscape garden
Created by the banker Henry Hoare in the mid-1700s, the gardens are set in the grounds of a house built in the Palladian style.
Covering over 1000 hectares, the gardens are centred on a lake, formed by damming the headwaters of the river Stour. A team of 50 gardeners planted a great variety of trees, and paths around the lake provide vistas to a Paladian bridge, grottos, and classical temples, such as the temples of Apollo and Flora, and the Pantheon (photo 2).
Further information
The world-famous garden at Stourhead (National Trust)
Harrison, J. (2015) The development and content of Stourhead Gardens: Recent findings, insights from an eighteenth-century poem and the visit of Carlo Gastone Della Torre Di Rezzonico in 1787. Garden History, 43(1), 126-143. View on JSTOR
