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Stanway House

article by: SJO

To the east of Toddington, just visible from the Stanway viaduct, is Stanway House. Stanway is an outstandingly beautiful example of a Jacobean manor house, owned by Tewkesbury Abbey for 800 years then for 500 years by the Tracy family and their descendants, the Earls of Wemyss. Stanway House is currently the home of Lord and Lady Neidpath. Thanks to its location, at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment, Stanway has been protected from many changes of the 20th century, but the last decade has seen the gradual restoration to its former glory of the 18th century watergarden, probably designed by the greatest of British landscape gardeners, Charles Bridgeman. The formal Canal, on a terrace above the house, the Cascade (the longest in England), the striking Pyramid and eight ponds have been reinstated, and a single-jet fountain, at 300 feet the highest fountain in Britain and the highest gravity fountain in the world, has been added.

When the present house was built during the reign of Elizabeth I a brewery was embodied, as was not uncommon at the time. Having lain idle for many years, the old brewery has been resurrected by brewer Alex Pennycook with consent from Lord Neidpath. Integrated into the brewhouse are two coppers built over log fires. Stanway is one of only two log fired breweries in the country. The beers can be sampled at a number of local inns, including The Pheasant which is only 100 yds from Toddington Station and the White Hart in Winchcombe.