S t e e p l e  A s t o n

E y e c a t c h e r

Rousham House is approximately 1 mile from the village of Steeple Aston. The house was owned by a Sir James Dormer who was a General in the army. In 1737 William Kent was employed by Sir Dormer to landscape his manor house garden. Inspired by the works of Charles Bridgeman, who had the responsibilty for the royal gardens and his particular style of augustan landscaping, Kent took advantage of the different levels of land available to him. He sculpted a small but delightful valley in the garden, the Vale of Venus, opening it out to a green. At one end of this he built a small temple. In the central grounds he constructed a hermitage surrounded by hills and trees. Perhaps to compliment the river that runs around the edge of the estate.

Finally he concentrated his skills on the surrounding landscape. On the distant horizon in view of the gardens, just beyond Steeple Aston village and on the summit of a hill, William Kent built possibly his first ever eye catcher folly. Although dubbed as a 'romantic ruin', it is a particularly crude affair, compared with similar eye catcher arches, Heaven's Gate at Highclere castle in Hampshire for example.

It takes the form of a tall central arch flanked by 2 smaller ones, set in a large rectangular wall. The top of the structure is curved and made from larger, rougher stones with short stubby pinnacles set evenly from end to end. It is well supported with 8 very solid buttresses and quite rightly so, as standing alone in the middle of its field on top of the hill without the protection of any trees, it is totally exposed to strong winds. It may be that the knobbly curved top may have been added later by Kent as an afterthought. Although there appears to be no record of this. Kent's arch was built as a mark of triumph to celebrate the victories over the Spaniards by his employer, Sir General Dormer of Rousham House 1 mile away.

William Kent adopted this technique of building a distant curiosity again at Blenheim Palace near Guildford in Surrey, with a memorial column erected far from, but within site of the house. Once again built in the middle of a field.

Visiting

The eye catcher arch is so large it can easily be seen from nearby Steeple Aston village. However, there is a track, possibly a bridle way leading from the village, where a closer look can be obtained. It is built on private land in the centre of a crop field. There are no pathways leading to it.

Rousham House and Garden, Steeple Aston, Bicester, OX25 3QX Oxfordshire.

 

Co-ords 448300 226000 / SP 483260  

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