The information board is located adjacent to the Garden Shelter in the grounds of The Bath House and Physic Garden.
Congleton Bath House and Physic garden is a restoration and conservation community project run by the volunteers of Congleton Building Preservation Trust.
The Bath House is a rare survivor of a private spring fed cold water plunge pool, built around 1800. The Garden Shelter is a Robert Adam inspired structure.
The grounds of the Bath House were once owned by John Bradshaw perhaps Congleton’s most (in)famous inhabitant - as he was president of the court that condemned Charles 1st to death.
A Physic Garden has been created in the grounds of the Bath House with areas that grow different 'useful' plants and information that tells the story of medicinal plants.
"The Bath House and Garden Shelter are located at the top of a slope,
with grounds extending about 100m down the hill towards Bradshaw House and the Town Hall. The Garden Shelter would originally have been intended as a focal point in the view looking up from Bradshaw House
(now obscured by trees); but is now a fine spot from which to admire the view over lawns and the Physic Garden, to the Town Hall beyond.
The information board gives the following information;
"Garden Shelter
This shelter was built around 1800 in the style of Robert Adam, the
famous 18th century architect and designer. Its classic shape has two Tuscan columns at the front with the face of Bacchus carved on the central key stone. The choice of Bacchus adds to the feeling of this site (once secluded) being used in part for relaxation, fun and frivolity. It would have been the perfect spot to rest after your cold water plunge, and your exercise in the grounds. All this would be part of a holistic health regime that encouraged bathers and visitors alike to enjoy the natural beauty of their surroundings.
Along with the bath house itself, our garden shelter is a rare survivor that was almost lost through neglect until the Trust took on its conservation. In 2002 the whole building was dismantled and moved forward by one yard to protect it from moisture coming from the earth bank, into which it had been built.
Other much grander versions of this style of garden shelter can be seen at Croome Park, Worcestershire, in the gardens at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, and at Highclere Castle, Berkshire. All three of these landscaped gardens were the work of the famous and prolific Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Also of interest, and on a less grand scale, is the Temple of Pan in Desert de Retz park Chambourcy near Paris.
(There are illustrations of the three shelters mentioned on the board)"
The Garden Shelter is Grade II listed, the description given by British Listed Buildings reads as follows;
"Garden shelter circa 1820, stone and brick with stone slab roof. Single storey in Tuscan style. The shelter has an apsidal plan and hemispherical ceiling of ashlar. The opening is framed by plain pilasters, with moulded caps, which support an elliptical archivolt with Grecian head keystone. The pilasters are flanked by Tuscan engaged columns which support a Tuscan pediment. The moulds of the entablature are returned at the ends and continue to embrace wide projecting pilasters facing east and west. The shelter is backed by brickwork, in English Garden Wall Bond, this is roofed by two large stone slabs pitched to the slope of the pediment and joined by a stone ridge." Source: (
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