Lodge Park was built as a

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

in the Sherborne Estate near the villages of

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish include ...

Aldsworth Aldsworth is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, about ten miles north-east of Cirencester. In 2010 its population was 236. Aldsworth is a large parish, slightly north of the River Leach ...

and

Northleach Northleach is a market town and former civil parish, now in parish Northleach with Eastington, in the Cotswold District, Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England. The town is in the valley of the River Leach in the Cotswolds, about northe ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England. The site is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

and the former grandstand is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It is England's only surviving 17th-century deer course and grandstand. In the 19th century Lodge Park was modified into a house, then a row of cottages, and then into a house again. It was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1982, and restored to its original form as a grandstand. Lodge Park is open to the public at advertised times, and the footpaths in the Sherborne Estate are available to the public at all times.

Lodge Park

History

In the early 1630s John 'Crump' Dutton created a deer course on his Sherborne Estate; this consisted of a park for containing the deer, a mile-long walled enclosure for the chase, and, overlooking the finish, a grandstand. His grandfather, Thomas Dutton, was descended from the Dutton family of Dutton,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, and had bought the manor of Sherborne in 1551. As originally constructed, the grandstand consisted of two storeys with a flat roof and a basement. At the entrance was a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

with a balcony, and the basement contained the kitchens. At the back of the building was a range containing the staircases linking the floors. The ground floor was the entrance hall for welcoming guests, and the first floor consisted of the Great Room where the guests were entertained. The deer coursing could be observed from the flat roof or from the balcony over the portico. During the 1720s the building was remodelled and refurnished by

Sir John Dutton, 2nd Baronet Sir John Dutton, 2nd Baronet (1684–1743), of Sherborne, Gloucestershire, was a British landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1734. Dutton was baptized on 2 January 1684, the eldest surviving son of Sir Ralph D ...

. New stone floors were added, a new plasterwork ceiling was added to the Great Room, and new furniture was designed. Dutton employed

Charles Bridgeman Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer who helped pioneer the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres ...

to redesign the landscaping. Jeffrey Haworth is of the opinion that the new interiors and some of the furniture was designed by

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, b ...

. There were then few changes until the early 19th century when the building was modified to make it into a house. The staircase range and the chimney piece from the Great Room were removed; the latter was incorporated in the rebuilding of Sherborne House to the design of

Lewis Wyatt Lewis William Wyatt (1777–1853) was a British architect, a nephew of both Samuel and James Wyatt of the Wyatt family of architects, who articled with each of his uncles and began practice on his own about 1805. Lewis Wyatt is known primarily f ...

. The removal of the staircase range adversely affected the stability of the house. A

pitched roof Roof pitch is the steepness of a roof expressed as a ratio of inch(es) rise per horizontal foot (or their metric equivalent), or as the angle in degrees its surface deviates from the horizontal. A flat roof has a pitch of zero in either inst ...

was installed in place of the original flat roof, lowering the ceiling of the former Great Room. In the middle of the 19th century the interior of the building was gutted and it was converted into a row of cottages; this further impaired the stability of the building. Between 1898 and 1902 the building was converted into a

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish estate (house), estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house fr ...

for Emily, the wife of

Edward Dutton, 4th Baron Sherborne Edward Lenox Dutton, 4th Baron Sherborne (23 April 1831 – 18 July 1919), was a British peer and diplomat. Background Sherborne was the son of James Dutton, 3rd Baron Sherborne, of Sherborne, Gloucestershire, by his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howa ...

. The rear wing was rebuilt in a different form. The first floor was made into a bedroom with an ''en suite'' bathroom. The dining room was on the ground floor, with a lounge and a staircase in the newly built rear wing; the staircase led to a

drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th ce ...

on the first floor. However Lady Sherborne died in 1905 before her husband, and it is unlikely that she ever occupied the house. Further alterations were made in 1938, when the house was tenanted, and again in the 1950s, when

Charles Dutton, 7th Baron Sherborne Charles Dutton, 7th Baron Sherborne (13 May 1911 – 25 December 1982), was a British peer. Background Charles Thomas Sherborne Dutton was the son of Lt. Col. James Huntly Dutton, 6th Baron Sherborne, and Ethel Mary Baird. Career Dutton was a ...

, and his wife moved into the house. Charles died in 1982 and bequeathed the house and the estate to the National Trust.

Restoration

When the National Trust acquired the property the house was in a poor condition; the external walls were moving and the chimney stacks were collapsing. The interior consisted of "a jumble of small-scale modern rooms and corridors".

Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–18 ...

had discovered a 1634 description of the building. Further information was found in the Sherborne Archive in the Gloucester Record Office. Essential repairs were carried out, and archaeological investigations revealed more evidence about the building's original form and its subsequent alterations. It was decided to restore the building to a condition close to its original form.

Architecture

Clive Aslet Clive Aslet (born 15 February 1955) is a writer on British architecture and life, a Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge and publisher of Triglyph Books. For 13 years he was the Editor of Country Life magazine. Earl ...

states, the building "is bursting with architecture". A description written in 1634 suggests that the design was inspired by

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...

Banqueting House The Banqueting House, on Whitehall in the City of Westminster, central London, is the grandest and best-known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting houses, constructed for elaborate entertaining. It is the only large surviving comp ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

, London. At one time it was thought that it had been designed by Jones, but this is incorrect. The citation in ''

Images of England Images of England is an online photographic record of all the listed buildings in England at the date of February 2002. The archive gives access to over 323,000 colour images, each of which is matched with the item's listed designation architectu ...

'' states that it was probably designed by John Webb and built by Valentine Strong of Taynton.

Exterior

The building is constructed in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone, with rusticated

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s and a moulded

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

. Its main part has a rectangular plan in two storeys, with a flat lead roof and an extension to the rear. The east face forms the entrance front. It is symmetrical in five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

with a protruding three-bay single-storey portico. The portico has three round arches on columns and is surmounted by a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

. The central doorway has a round arch and on each side are two

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed and transomed windows. On the first floor is a central doorway with a mullioned window above and arched niches in each side. The other bays contain mullioned and transomed windows. There are

string courses A course is a layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall. It can also be defined as a continuous row of any masonry unit such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, tiles, etc. Coursed masonry construction arranges un ...

between the storeys and over the upper storey. Over the lateral two windows on the ground floor are curved

tympani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

, and over each bay in the upper storey is a broken tympanum. Each of these tympani contains a sculpted human head. A balustrade runs around the top of the roof, and at its rear are six joined chimneys.

Interior

The entrance hall contains two original arches. One of these includes a fireplace, the other leads to the staircase. The National Trust has inserted a panelled wall on the left. The staircase has been rebuilt by the National Trust in a

stairwell A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway. ...

measuring by , and its oak

baluster A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

s have been copied from those at

Cornbury Park Cornbury Park is an estate near Charlbury, Oxfordshire. It comprises about , mostly farmland and woods, including a remnant of the Wychwood Forest, and was the original venue for the Cornbury Music Festival and later the Wilderness Festival. His ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. The Great Room on the first floor has been restored in an attempt to link with its original design, including its classical ordering with a dado,

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

. The walls would have been hung with

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

, but this has been replaced with family portraits that originally hung in Sherborne House. The floor has been reconstructed, using

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

boards measuring from the Welsh borders. The chimneypiece has been reconstructed by masons from the

Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Hereford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Hereford and the principal church of the diocese of Hereford. The cathedral is a grade I listed building. A place of wors ...

workshop.

Associated structures

Three structures associated with the Lodge Park have been designated as Grade II listed buildings by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. About to the south of building is a pair of gates with

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

that date from the mid-18th century or earlier. The gates are constructed in

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

and the piers are in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. The piers consist of hammer-dressed quoins up to the level of the top of the gates; on the top of each is a large stone block surmounted by a triangular pedimented capping stone. Some to the east is a fountain probably dating from 1898. This consists of a circular stone surround with four

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape ...

s, one at each

cardinal point The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the four main compass directions: north (N), south (S), east (E), and west (W). The corresponding azimuths (clockwise horizontal angle from north) are 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°. The four o ...

. In the centre is the fountain, also in the form of an urn, but larger than those on the surround. Further to the east, some from the building, is a pair of limestone lodges with adjoining walls, gate piers and gates also dating from about 1898.

Parkland

To the west of Park Lodge is an area of parkland of 115 hectares. This was landscaped to a design by

from the mid-1720s for Sir John Dutton. It is registered by

as Grade I. The park contained a series of "rooms" (presumably for herding deer), a Great Avenue, and a former canal. Bridgeman's proposal for a serpentine canal was not carried through. In the parkland there is a

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

at map reference SP1426712550, with a capstone and two upright stones visible at the south-eastern end.

Sherborne Estate

The estate is open to the public. It contains wild animals including fallow and roe deer, badgers and foxes. There are a number of footpaths and walks in the estate, including a sculpture trail; some of these start from Ewe Pen Barn (). On the estate are

water-meadow A water-meadow (also water meadow or watermeadow) is an area of grassland subject to controlled irrigation to increase agricultural productivity. Water-meadows were mainly used in Europe from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Working wate ...

s, including draining channels and

sluice A sluice ( ) is a water channel containing a sluice gate, a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level. There are various types of sluice gates, including flap sluice gates and fan gates. Different depths are calculated when design s ...

s (). The estate was the venue for the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

wildlife television programmes ''

Springwatch ''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' until 2022 and ''Winterwatch'', sometimes known collectively as ''The Watches'', are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kin ...

'' and ''Autumnwatch'' in 2017, followed by ''Winterwatch'' in January 2018.

Present day

Lodge Park is open to the public at advertised times and has a small shop and provides light refreshments. The building is available for weddings. The Sherborne Estate is open all year.

References

Citations Sources * {{refend Buildings and structures completed in the 17th century Country houses in Gloucestershire Grade I listed buildings in Gloucestershire National Trust properties in Gloucestershire Parks and open spaces in Gloucestershire 17th-century architecture in England Dower houses