The Gothic Eyecatcher Temple at Shotover Estate was designed as a Garden temple for General James Tyrrell in the early 1720s, probably by William Townesend, a Master Builder who had great experience of local Oxford colleges and civic buildings. The corner turrets may derive from Hawksmoor£s North Quad at All Soul£s college where Townesend was also the builder (Pevsner). It is one of the earliest examples of a Gothic-styled garden building and is unusual in that it is symmetrical in design. It is thought to have influenced Kent and Gibbs who both worked on the Estate. James Gibbs designed a larger Gothic Temple at Stowe in 1740. The temple lies at the eastern end of the main axis of the important early C18 layout of the formal garden at the end of the three tiered lakes. The building has no main use other than as a building viewed within the landscape, one of the rooms to the rear was previously used as a builder£s store. The Front elevation was partially repaired and re-decorated with English Heritage grant in 1987/8 in what the Estate now know to have been an incorrect colour finish. The structure remains on the English Heritage £at risk£ register. There is no public access to the building although there is a footpath adjacent to the site from which I can be seen. It has however been prone to vandalism in the past and break-ins to the rear with signs of open fires internally in the past. The Temple was on the Heritage England £Buildings at Risk£ register for some years due to the condition of the roof and damaged to the side walls, when in August 2013 a section of the ceiling of the vaulted loggia collapsed. Matthew Hollingsworth of Spirit Architecture was asked to help the Shotover Estate prepare a Schedule of Repairs for a grant application in March 2014 under the Higher Level Stewardship scheme of Natural England to coincide with repairs to the lake drainage system. In Autumn 2014 works commenced on repairs to the roof structure and repairs to the external fabric under the grant scheme undertaken by Contractors County Construction (Oxon) Ltd. The full extend of the damage to the roof timbers was not known until the roof was stripped and the timbers examined as close quarters, many timbers had been fully eroded from the inside out and a number of critical sections of timber had to be replaced with new. In addition to the re-roofing the weak point in the design was deemed to be the back section of the front crenulation, to give better protection full lead flashing of the whole of this section was undertaken. This continued through until early 2015 and when that section of the project was completed, and a watertight enclosure was in place, the Estate decided to continue to privately fund the works to repair the ceiling of the loggia and repair and redecorate the main elevation of the temple to the original colour scheme, rather than the white limewash that had been applied in the 1980s. After a tender process undertaken by Matthew Hollingsworth the contract for the repairs of the Plaster Ceiling, main elevation and the decoration of the Temple was made with Specialist Master Plasterer, Philip Gaches with the ceiling timbers repaired by County Construction Limited. The Basic approach adopted was that ceiling is designed to be read as a complete whole as the background when enjoying the temple, the plaster that remains in the ceiling was either original or C20th repairs, some of a good quality, others areas poor quality. The poor quality repairs had on inspection of the ceiling timbers had not dealt with the major timber damage and it was agreed with Heritage England and the Local Authority that these area were to be recorded and replaced with sound new lime plaster to the same sand build-up and quality and re-instated with original detailing in a similar method using wooden moulds to form the panel mouldings and the ribs. By sand analysis the original ceiling was a mix of fine and course sands were found to be similar to those of Welby Manor Pit, Lincolnshire so this sand was used for the lime plaster, with goat hair mixed in on site to the original quantities (the original short bovine hair not being available commercially any more). It was also discovered that the ceiling had been formed in four coats from 7-10mm, to a 3mm top coat. The floating coat had been applied in two layers on the same day. What was interesting about this was part of the transition from the C17th single coats which followed the timber lath base to the new fashion for flatter plasters which reached its peak in the later C18th Georgian period, this plaster had the consistency of a C17th plaster in density of hair and clay like texture but was being applied in the new layered fashion. As the original timber formwork was of a quality and source we were unlikely to match we used Accoya, a chemically treated softwood timber which has is Grade 1 strength and durability but is readily workable and dimensionally stable to allow the curves and shaped joints to be formed. It does not absorb water which given the proximity of the lake was an added advantage. In most cases the new ribs were placed alongside the original timbers and new fixings secured through the plaster but for some diagonal sections the full timber was replaced due to the level of deterioration and given that fixings to both sides need to be made to secure the structure. These were recoded and identified on the drawings. The new ribs were secured by stainless steel screws to avoid undue stress to the ceiling and in places stainless steel brackets were formed. The ribs were run in situ using wooden moulds and twisted to follow the lines of the ceiling as was observed in the original sections of remaining ceiling. Paint Analysis was then undertaken of the ceilings and the elevations to discover the original tone and colours, the finished ceiling was then painted with a breathable mineral paint to match original colouring as we had to cover some C20th emulsions, as an limewash white. The elevations a cream/buff colour limewash was used which was paler than Shotover House but of a similar hue to look like a one colour stone finish. Works were completed in July 2015.