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Water gardens Studley Royal

** From Fountains Abbey it is only a short walk along the river to the Studley Royal water gardens . The gardens were designed by John Aislabie in the early seventeenth century, they are a fine example of a Georgian water gardens

The Temple of Piety seen in the centre of the image is one of the many neo-classical buildings in Studley Royal.

 

a bit more background

In the early 18th-century John Aislabie had great plans to impress visitors to his Yorkshire estate and so turned the wild and wooded valley of the river Skell into one of England’s most spectacular Georgian water gardens.

John Aislabie inherited the Studley Royal estate in 1693. He was a socially and politically ambitious man and became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1718. Disaster struck his career in 1720 due to his part in the South Sea Bubble financial scandal and he was expelled from Parliament. It was then that John returned to Yorkshire and devoted himself to creating this ground-breaking garden. Inspired by the work of the great French landscape gardeners, the two gifted amateurs created the Water Garden with its formal, geometric design and extraordinary vistas; including the much photographed Temple of Piety.You can also find classical statues, follies and garden buildings carefully positioned within the landscape to discover and enjoy.

Amazingly the garden you see today is little changed from the one that would have impressed Aislabie’s visitors 200 years ago.

 

 

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Uploaded on July 18, 2025
Taken on March 30, 2021