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Stanway Fountain & Water Garden

20 acres of planted landscape in early C18 formal setting. The restored canal, upper pond and fountain have recreated one of the most interesting Baroque water gardens in Britain. Striking C16 manor with gatehouse, tithe barn and church. The garden features Britain's highest fountain at 300ft, and it is the world's highest gravity fountain. It runs at 2.45pm and 4.00pm for 30 mins each time.

Owner Info

Stanway Fountain & Water Garden
Stanway Fountain & Water Garden
Stanway Fountain & Water Garden
Stanway Fountain & Water Garden
Stanway Fountain & Water Garden
Stanway Fountain & Water Garden

About Stanway Fountain & Water Garden

“As perfect and pretty a Cotswold manor house as anyone is likely to see” according to Fodor’s Great Britain Guide. Stanway House is a charming, lived-in, golden-stoned jewel surrounded by beautiful parkland and villages and distinguished by one of the finest water gardens in England which now has a 300ft fountain – the tallest gravity fountain in the world. Stanway is a honey-coloured Cotswold village with a Jacobean great-house which has changed hands just once since AD 715. The garden rises in a series of dramatic terraced lawns and a rare, picturesque grasswork to the pyramid which in the eighteenth century stood at the head of a 190-metre-long cascade descending to a formal canal on the terrace above the house. This was probably designed by Charles Bridgeman, and exceeded in length and height (36 metres) its famous rival at Chatsworth (see entry in Derbyshire). Inside the house is a fascinating painting recording the cascade as it looked in the eighteenth century. The canal, the upper pond behind the pyramid, a short section of the cascade and the upper fall below the pyramid were restored in 1998, and a 100-metre-high single-jet fountain (the tallest garden fountain in the world) added in the middle of the canal. The medieval pond in the Lower Garden, recently restored, has enhanced the beauty of the fourteenth-century tithe barn. It is hoped soon to restore the upper cascade, a series of pools and waterfalls on the hillside east of the pyramid, from which magnificent views of the cascades, canal, fountain, house and vale of the Severn can be had. A high walk along the hillside above the cascade reveals the splendid park trees. In all 23 acres.

Location details

Stanway Fountain & Water Garden,
Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire,
GL54 5PQ

Directions to Stanway Fountain & Water Garden
1m E of B4632 Cheltenham to Broadway rd on B4077 Toddington to Stow-on-the-Wold rd.

Stanway Fountain & Water Garden openings

You can just turn up and pay on the day.

Refreshments Tea, coffee & cake in Stanway Tearoom. Cash only. For NGS day admission is to garden only.
Admission Adult: £7.00
Child: £3.00
Opening times 14:00-17:00

You can just turn up and pay on the day.

Refreshments Tea, coffee & cake in Stanway Tearoom. Cash only. For NGS day admission is to garden only.
Admission Adult: £7.00
Child: £3.00
Opening times 14:30-17:00

Accessibility

  • Partial wheelchair access in garden, some flat areas, able to view fountain and some of garden.
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FAQs

Payment is by cash only. Please get in touch with the owners for more details.

Yes, coaches are accepted at Stanway Fountain & Water Garden. Please get in touch with the owners for details.

Yes, dogs are welcome at Stanway Fountain & Water Garden. Please keep the dogs on fixed short leads in the garden and keep in mind that you are responsible for controlling the dog’s behaviour. For any specific rules please ask the owners.

There are no plants for sale for the time being.

Yes, one or more routes at Stanway Fountain & Water Garden are accessible to wheelchair users.

Stanway Fountain & Water Garden is not explicitly a wildlife garden, but you may still find various indigenous flora and fauna.