Cowdray House, Midhust

Gate House
Court Yard
East Range: Porch, Buck Hall, Dinning Parlour
Chapel & Grand Staircase
North-east corner
North Range
North-west corner
South-west corner
South Range
South-east corner & Kitchen
Key to dates & Owners

The Court Yard

Passing through the inner doorway, you entered the quadrangular court, in the centre of which was an early sixteenth century Florentine bronze fountain that replaced an earlier, smaller one. The conduit house supplied the water that flowed from it.

The fountain in the centre of the court at Cowdray was removed to Woolbeding, a grand house located nearby, shortly after the fire and stayed there . It stayed at Woolbeding until the National Trust took the house over in 1956, when the fountain was loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as an example of sixteenth century Florentine bronze fountain. The only alterations that had been made, were that the griffin heads used to be set on the stone surround facing inwards, where as they are now on the centre facing outwards. The Fountain is located in the Raphael Cartoons gallery.

Pre-fire view

View from top of Kitchen Tower

West and East Ranges

Fountain in V&A Museum

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