Visiting Lodge Park

The grandstand

Lodge Park is England’s only surviving and probably most opulent 17th-century grandstand. Created in 1634 by John ‘Crump’ Dutton, Lodge Park indulged his passion for gambling, banqueting and entertaining.

The building has been modified many times over the years and questions still remain about who the remodels can be attributed to. Explore this fascinating building and soak up its rich history.

Lodge Park houses the best of the Sherborne collection, inherited from Lord Sherborne in 1982, highlights include Kent furniture and family portraits.

The deer park

There was already a park here when Crump inherited the estate in 1618, but he soon set about enclosing it. A warrant signed by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 allowed him to take bucks and roes from Wychwood Forest to fill this new park. The gentry used to hold brutish deer coursing events here with the grandstand at the centre. Learn more about the history by paying a visit to Lodge Park. 

Bridgeman landscape

In 1726, renowned landscape designer Charles Bridgeman redesigned the parkland at Lodge Park. Although very little of his planting remains today, his designs are still largely intact. In fact, this is the only surviving Bridgeman landscape not to have been overlaid by the better-remembered designers William Kent and Capability Brown.

Follow the footpaths to the rear of Lodge Park and take in the stunning landscape.
 

Groups and tours