Dodington Park

Bath Lodge at the southern entrance to Dodington Park

Dodington Park is a country house and estate in Dodington, Gloucestershire, England. Various buildings on the estate are Grade I listed buildings. The house is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England and the landscaped park is Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[1][2]

The Bath Lodge at the southern part of the estate is listed Grade I and the wall, railings and gate piers near the lodge are listed Grade II.[3][4] Chippenham Lodge and its terrace walls and the northern gateway to Dodington Park are listed Grade II*.[5]

The gates and walls surrounding the kitchen garden toward the north of the park are listed Grade II, as is the Garden Cottage.[6][7]

The church of St Mary adjoining the house is listed Grade I.[8]

History

The Codrington family acquired the estate in the late 16th century, when there was a large gabled Elizabethan house and adjoining church. In the 18th century the family became wealthy from sugar plantations in the West Indies (see History of the British West Indies) and undertook work on the estate. The grounds of 240 ha were laid out around 1764 by Capability Brown and were modified in 1793 by William Emes and John Webb.[2]

The current house was built by James Wyatt between 1798 and 1816 for Christopher Bethell Codrington. It is built in the Roman classical style from Bath stone and has a slate roof. Each facade is different, the south front having seven bays separated by Corinthian pilasters. From the north west corner of the house, a curving conservatory acts as a covered approach to the church, which was also rebuilt by Wyatt. A formal garden was added in 1930. The house, the church and Bath Lodge by the southern entrance in Tormarton are all grade I listed buildings.[2] The house has 51 bedrooms, with 40 bathrooms and ten reception rooms.[9]

Roads around the park were used as stages of the Lombard RAC Rally in 1974 and 1976.[10]

The estate remained in the Codrington family until 1980 when it was sold along with the family papers during divorce proceedings. These documents recorded the activities of three generations of Codrington, each called Christopher, who owned estates in Barbados, Antigua and the whole island of Barbuda for two centuries. The papers provided a record of the history of slavery and the history of the West Indies over the course of three hundred years.[11] Dodington Park was sold in 1993 to an unnamed property developer.[12] It was bought in 2003 by the British inventor and businessman James Dyson for a price believed to be £20 million.[13][14]

References

  1. ↑ Historic England, "Dodington House (1000566)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 6 October 2017
  2. 1 2 3 Historic England, "Dodington House (1211169)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 6 October 2017
  3. ↑ Historic England, "Bath Lodge (1214012)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2017
  4. ↑ Historic England, "Wall, railings and gate piers about 10 metres East of Bath Lodge (1288729)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2017
  5. ↑ Historic England, "North gateway to Dodington Park, sites, quadrant walls and Chippenham Lodge and terrace walls (1135785)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2017
  6. ↑ Historic England, "Walls surrounding former kitchen garden and gates at North end of Dodington Park (1211469)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2017
  7. ↑ Historic England, "Garden Cottage (1290031)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2017
  8. ↑ Historic England, "Church of St Mary (1211173)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2017
  9. ↑ David Smith (27 February 2005). "Lord Muck". The Observer. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  10. ↑ , eWRC-Results
  11. ↑ Michael Wood (2001). In Search of England: Journeys Into the English Past. University of California Press. pp. 292–293. ISBN 978-0-520-23218-1.
  12. ↑ Anne Spackman (13 November 1993). "Property: The manor is reborn: Wealthy buyers are rediscovering the advantages, financial and social, of owning an estate, says Anne Spackman". The Independent. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  13. ↑ Matthew Parker (31 July 2011). The Sugar Barons. Random House. p. 362. ISBN 978-1-4464-7310-8.
  14. ↑ Nicholas Hellen and Josh Boswell (28 December 2014). "Dyson bags a bigger estate than the Queen". The Times. Retrieved 9 October 2017.

Further reading

Coordinates: 51°31′1.5″N 2°21′29″W / 51.517083°N 2.35806°W / 51.517083; -2.35806

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