The East Court

Here are the 'Cover'd Ways for Servants', which, in their 'extravagance', shocked the 1st Duchess. She insisted too on less costly stone. The material for this court was to have been Headington stone, cheap but not of first quality, till Vanbrugh t hought of the stone quarried at Heythrop, 'still cheaper and better'. The most dependable stones of all came from Taynton, Barrington and Cornbury (in Wychwood Forest) and these were used for the more important parts of the palace, according to colour and weather resistance.

The orangery in the south-east corner of this court was, in the 4th Duke's time, a theatre, 'fitted up in a style of peculiar elegance' in grey, blue and white. It seated two hundred and was last used as a theatre in 1789. The st age end has since been divided off as a muniment room. Next to this, on the west, are offices, including the Estate Office and the Audit Room, which was originally the kitchen.

Vanbrugh's vast kitchen, rib-vaulted by Henry Banks, who built the East Gate and the colonnades of the Great Court, is in the south-west corner of the East Court. Long since disused as a kitchen, it has been criticised for its remoteness from the dinin g-rooms, in the heart of the main building. But in Anne's day etiquette and 'state' were infinitely more important than hot food; and to tolerate the smell of cooking, in state or private apartments, was out of the question. The laundry, correspondingly h uge, looked onto this court; and the 30-foot (9-metre) walls of the adjoining drying ground were designed to transform a light breeze into something approaching a whirlwind.

The clock (1710) is by Langley Bradley, who also made the original 'Turritt' clock in St Paul's Cathedral. The dial seen from the East Court is level with the movement (restored by Vulliamy, another eminent maker). The other three dials are on a higher storey so as to be visible from the park. Bradley's bill, including the three bells, came to £303 16s. 3d., but was reduced by £100. The tower, during building, was called Townsend's Tower, after its mason, John Townsend of Oxford. Sarah referred to it as 'a great thing where the Clock is and which is Called a Tower of great Orname nt'. it cost £1,435 l9s. 7d. The archway beneath the clock tower leads to the Great Court, the aesthetic centre piece of Blenhiem.