JUNE 2023 · ROAM

Newark Park

Ozleworth Bottom, Gloucestershire

Newark Park is a Tudor hunting lodge on the Cotswold escarpment at Ozleworth Bottom — crenellated roofline, ashlar stone, the whole thing symmetrical in a way that announces the intention of the builder as clearly as a declaration. The National Trust has it. It is maintained. The windows are clean.

But the place hasn't been frozen. That was the thing. The stone doorway with its pediment has topiary in terracotta pots on the steps, and on those steps, a peacock. Not arranged. Present. Standing on the stone as if it owns the step, which on balance it probably feels it does. Two peacocks in profile on the gravel path by the wrought-iron gate. A third on the steps with the pots.

Ivy-covered stone building with crenellated roofline surrounded by green woodland — Ivy not trimmed for the visit

— The structure

The peacocks are not exhibits. They move through the space according to whatever logic peacocks use. This placed them, repeatedly, in frames the architecture had set up without them in mind.

The peacocks are not exhibits — they move through the space according to whatever logic peacocks use.
Newark Park — June 2023

Peacock positioned on stone steps amid terracotta pots with topiary plants — On the stone as if it owns the step

— Peacocks

The garden beds hold seed heads drying among white daisies. Pale stalks among the flowers, the season already shifting in June. Against the brick wall at the back of one border: spiky succulents with purple blooms, growing against stone that predates them by four hundred years.

Logic peacocks use

Spiky succulent plants with purple flowers against brick wall and garden beds — Growing against stone four centuries older

— The garden beds

Inside, a hallway with tall timber doors, a crystal chandelier, and through the windows at the end: the Cotswold valley. The chandelier and the view in the same frame. Both are there, both are real.

Interior hallway with tall timber doors, crystal chandelier and Cotswold views — The chandelier and the view in the same frame

— Inside, outside

The ivy covers a significant portion of the exterior, over the crenellations and down the walls. The woodland behind the building is close. The escarpment below runs toward the valley. A June afternoon. The ivy was not trimmed for the visit.