Chiswick House, the eighteenth-century cascade, the classic bridge During the year Northamptonshire Archaeology carried out two modest pieces of work as part of the continuing restoration of the grounds of Chiswick House. Between July and October 1996, work to restore the eighteenth-century cascade was accompanied by further archaeological investigation. Parts of the lower culverts inaccessible in 1994 owing to the water level in the lake were examined, and additional features, including a series of brick weirs within the central culvert, were recorded. A brick wall retaining the path onto the terrace was uncovered and tentatively dated to the early-nineteenth century. No surviving evidence was found of the carriage-drive across the front of the cascade. The restoration provided an opportunity to record further details of the facing material in the central arch of the cascade which included slag, flint, and yellow stock brick burrs. The information revealed will be added to the earlier results to provide a full report on the cascade and help to elucidate its original operation. Seven small trenches were opened in February 1997 to evaluate the evidence for successive path layouts to the west of the classic bridge. Little of significance was found apart from the remains of an eighteenth-century gravel path on the axis of the bridge. Other features known from documentary evidence had been destroyed by later landscaping but the surface of the bridge itself merits further investigation.
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