Lodge Park was built as a

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

in the Sherborne Estate near the villages of

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. T ...

Aldsworth Aldsworth is a village and civil parish in the 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, located in the South ...

and

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

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. The site is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

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, an ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. 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 and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, 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 cult ...

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. 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 an ...

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, but ...

. 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 insta ...

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 or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family h ...

for Emily, the wife of the 4th Baron Sherborne. 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 cent ...

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, the 7th Baron, 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, 1600–1840' ...

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, and a campaigner on countryside and other issues. He was for many years editor of '' Country Life'' magazine. He is Visiting Professor of Architecture at the Universi ...

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 the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

Banqueting House In English architecture, mainly from the Tudor period onwards, a banqueting house is a separate pavilion-like building reached through the gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining, especially eating. Or it may be buil ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. 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 is the main ...

, 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 architectur ...

'' 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 finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

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, t ...

s and a moulded

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') 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 c ...

. 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, circular bay with a narr ...

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 con ...

. 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 supp ...

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 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 Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...

wall on the left. The staircase has been rebuilt by the National Trust in a stairwell 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 cons ...

s have been copied from those at Cornbury Park in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. 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 classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

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 art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

, 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. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

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

Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England. A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. S ...

workshop.

Associated structures

Three structures associated with the Lodge Park have been designated as Grade II listed buildings by English Heritage. 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 more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

and the piers are in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. 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 or ...

s, one at each

cardinal point The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are a ...

. 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 English Heritage 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 water-m ...

s, including draining channels and

sluice Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

s (). The estate was the venue for the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

wildlife television programmes ''

Springwatch ''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' 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 Kingdom. The p ...

'' 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 the United Kingdom Dower houses