How a cascade dating back to the 1690s is being fixed

The 23 steps that make up the cascade at Chatsworth House have been the centrepiece of the stately home's garden for more than 325 years.

But over the centuries, leakage through its stones began to impact the tunnels underneath it and put the water feature at "significant structural risk".

It was turned off in 2024 to prevent further damage and possible collapse, but now a major restoration project has begun there.

Jane Marriott, director of Chatsworth House Trust - the charity that cares for the historic estate - said when ground was broken on the restoration work on Wednesday, there was a feeling of "a bit of relief, excitement, but also a real sense of gratitude".

Marriott said: "It's the culmination of years of work. Two years ago we switched the water off running down the cascade because it was at threat of collapsing.

"A year before that, we'd gone to the lottery to ask them for support to restore it.

"We're at the stage where we've actually been able to lift the first stone, break ground and start the work on the restoration.

"Without the support of the charity to make this possible, without the partners who have worked with us, the incredible volunteers, we wouldn't have been able to do this."

The cascade sits at the heart of Chatsworth's famous gardens in Derbyshire, fed by water from the hillside above the estate running down towards Salisbury Lawn outside the house.

The Grade I-listed landmark was built in 1696 and is "a significant feat of engineering and nature-inspired design that has delighted generations of visitors", according to Chatsworth House Trust.

It includes a temple housing 13 fountains, from which water normally runs down over 23 different shaped and textured giant stone steps, each formed of more than 100 individual stones.

Work to these is now able to begin as the appeal has passed £5m of a £7.2m fundraising campaign.

Robert Harrison, head of operations at Chatsworth House, said each stone would be individually lifted.

"We know the cascade has failed and water's been running under it," he said.

"We're going to test every single stone to see if we can reuse it, hopefully we can, if we can't we'll be replacing it with a new stone from Burntwood Quarry, our own quarry only two miles up the hill."

The tunnel beneath the cascade is also being shored up, re-dug around the pipe work, and repointed.

Harrison said the project was expected to take between a year and 18 months to complete with the water back on in 2028.

Funding for the restoration includes a £4.6m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The fund's East Midlands chairman Julian Glover added: "We need to bring it alive again for the future, and we need to bring water back to it.

"We need to see it adored as it always has been."

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