A Way With Water — Water Resources and the Life of an 18th-Century Park

The park around Farnborough Hall, Warwickshire, contains sites and monuments from the early medieval period onwards. Many of these are to do with the use and management of water. This account, mainly based on these remains, tells the story of the changing ways in which water resources have been exploited. A detailed account of the development of the Georgian park under the aegis of two individuals — William Holbech, the landowner, and Sanderson Miller, a gentleman architect — looks at factors which influenced the design of the park, documents a number of surviving structures and examines some of the technical aspects of construction. A number of highly unusual features have been recorded, including a garden amphitheatre, a large raised pool and an elongated waterway which shares some characteristics with early river navigations. The consideration of the options available to both the workforce and the social elite who shared the park explores the divide between labour and leisure

Archaeology · Civil engineering · Economic history · Elite · Geography · Georgian · Miller · Political science · Water resources · Engineering · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law · Ecology