History of Lodge Park and Sherborne Estate

Expert curated

Detail from the painting View of Lodge Park by George Lambert, found in the Entrance Hall at Lodge Park, Gloucestershire — View of Lodge Park by George Lambert | © National Trust Images / John Hammond

Lodge Park and Sherborne Estate, Gloucestershire, developed from Medieval monastic lands into a grand country estate owned by the Dutton family for over four centuries. Family fortunes were made and lost through sheep, marriages and gambling.

Monastic beginnings

A manor at Sherborne was owned by Winchcombe Abbey, and was among the largest settlements recorded in the Domesday Book (1086). By the early 15th century, the abbey had a reputation for producing quality wool from their flocks on the estate. Up to 3000 sheep were sheared each year, and the fleeces sold to customers across Europe.

The Dutton family

In 1552, Sherborne manor and estate was sold after the dissolution of the English monasteries by King Henry VIII. It was bought by Thomas Dutton (1507–81), one of the king’s surveyors, whose family originated from Dutton in Cheshire. The Dutton family were landowners. They were part of elite society hosting three visits from Queen Elizabeth I at Sherborne, which strengthened their social status. This royal favour continued over the next centuries; in 1678 the Dutton Baronetcy was created by King Charles II.

Oil painting on canvas, John 'Crump' Dutton, MP (1594–1656/7) attributed to Francis Cleyn (Rostock 1582–London 1658) with inscription on canvas — John 'Crump' Dutton, MP (1594–1656/7), detail, by attributed to Francis Clein [also Cleyn] (Rostock 1582–London 1658) | © National Trust Images/John Hammond

The creation of Lodge Park

Thomas’s grandson John ‘Crump’ Dutton (1594–1657), whose nickname came from a pronounced curvature of his spine, was a passionate gambler. He funded new facilities for the sport of deer coursing – involving dogs chasing the deer, racing to a finishing post. New Park, later known as Lodge Park, was created to house the deer and a mile-long walled paddock for the actual chase. Near the finishing post, a grandstand was built, where spectators could watch from the rooftop and place their bets on the winners, inside they enjoyed banquets in the so called Great Room.

Financial ups and downs

The loss of money through gambling brought the family close to financial ruin. John’s grandson Sir Ralph Dutton, 1st Baronet (c.1645–1720/1) inherited the estate in 1675 taking on large family debts. His marriage in 1679 to Mary Barwick (1661–1721/23) brought a cash dowry of £10,0000. However, to escape his own continued debts, in 1710 Ralph fled to Ireland leaving his wife in England and the management of Sherborne estate to his son.

Unlike his father, Sir John Dutton, 2nd Baronet (1684–1743), was a successful and shrewd manager and succeeded in re-establishing the family’s financial position. His marriages to two wealthy heiresses Mary Cullen (d. 1719) and Mary Keck (1686–1729) also brought a combined wealth of over £32,000 to the Dutton family.

View of the Great Room showing fireplace, William Kent style bench, window & floor. Colossal, continental chimneypiece little known in England, made by Hereford Cathedral Workshop masons. — View of the Great Room at Lodge Park, Gloucestershire | © National Trust Images/Nadia Mackenzie

18th-century redesigns

From the 1720s onwards, John used his new wealth to renovate Lodge Park. A proposal by the garden designer Charles Bridgeman, which survives in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, shows that he envisaged a landscape that mixed formal grand avenues with more relaxed snaking woodland walks. Some of these changes were implemented and hundreds of thousands of trees were planted. The grandstand was also remodeled with new stone floors, a fashionable plasterwork ceiling for the Great Room, and furniture by some of the most important craftsmen of the day including William Kent.

19th-century management

For the next 200 years the estate continued to evolve under Dutton family ownership. Another new park was created (South Park) and new stables constructed. Land was further enclosed and agricultural practices were modernised to improve yield and profit. The village of Sherborne was extended, and new schools established in 1824.

Sheep grazing on the water meadow at the Sherborne Estate in Gloucestershire — Sheep grazing on the water meadow at the Sherborne Estate | © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

20th-century changes

Shortly after the First World War (1914–18), the deaths in quick succession of Edward Dutton, 4th Baron Sherborne (1831–1919) and his brother Frederick Dutton, 5th Baron Sherborne (1840–1920), led to large Estate Tax liabilities, requiring the sale of farm stock and house contents by their nephew and heir James Huntly Dutton, 6th Baron Sherborne (1873–1949).

The occupation of Sherborne House and the parks by the British Army during the Second World War (1939–45) and the creation of an airfield on the estate marked the beginning of the end of the Dutton family’s ownership of Sherborne. The family never returned, and Sherborne House was let as a school from 1947. In 1971 the then owner Charles Dutton, 7th Baron Sherborne (1911–82) sold the house and gardens which remain in private hands having been converted into flats.

National Trust ownership and care

On Charles’ death in 1982, the surviving estate, including its many farms, buildings and lands, was gifted to the National Trust. The title of Baron Sherborne passed to his cousin Ralph Dutton (1898–1985) who was the last private owner of Hinton Ampner, also now in the care of the National Trust.

In 1991 the National Trust started to gather detailed archaeological evidence to return the grandstand in Lodge Park to its original internal layout and have since restored the building including the basement kitchen. Work continues to restore lost elements of Bridgeman’s 18th-century plans for the park. The first 102 trees were planted in January 2021 and include both lime and elm trees.