roof through the house, all those within managed to escape. At the height of the blaze when nothing more could be salvaged from inside, the 9th Viscount was heard to mutter "my life's work [is] destroyed". He and his wife painstakingly restored the house, except for the staff quarters on the top floor. To the north of the Hall, and separated from it only by the narrow Hall Drive, is the extensive stable block. The buildings are grouped around two courtyards. The stable block no longer serves its original purpose, but is now operated as a business park for small local businesses. A short walk to the west of the Hall, facing its rear facade, is the parish church of St John the Baptist, and its surrounding churchyard. With two earlier exceptions, members of the Lyttelton family, owners of Hagley Hall and their relatives, have only been buried in the churchyard since 1875; also there are the owners of other large houses and estates in the area, and their servants as well. Immediately adjacent to the church is the local cricket ground with its separate clubhouse. Hagley Cricket Club, first formed in 1834, was for long associated with the Lyttelton family. Grounds Hagley House is set in of landscaped deer park grazed by herds of fallow deer. The grounds were landscaped between about 1739 and 1764, with follies designed by John Pitt (of Encombe), Thomas Pitt, James "Athenian" Stuart, and Sanderson Miller. The follies include the Hagley Obelisk, built in 1764 for Sir Richard Lyttelton, which is visible for many miles. The nearby reconstruction of the Temple of Theseus, built between 1759 and 1762, was a gift from Admiral Smith, Lyttelton's half-brother. This is currently in poor condition and has been listed on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register for some years. Others in the main park included some more classical erections and a sham ruined castle in mediaeval style. The grounds drew many admiring visitors, including other writers interested in landscaping such as Alexander Pope and William Shenstone, to both of whom monuments were later erected in the park. James Thomson was another commemorated visitor, who included a description of the grounds in the Spring section of The Seasons, which he revised following his first visit to Hagley in 1743. Although the gardening poet William Mason did not consider Hagley by name in "The English Garden", there is a