Dodington House, Bristol, England

The historic gardens survey team were not granted access to this site and therefore cannot comment on its condition.

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

A well-preserved landscape park with designs by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in about 1764, William Emes in about 1793, and John Webb in the early 19th century.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Dodington Park comprises some 240 hectares on the west-facing slopes of the southern Cotswolds, about 4 kilometres east of Chipping Sodbury. Its eastern boundary is formed by the A46, Bath to Stroud road, and its north and north-west boundary by the A432, Chippenham to Sodbury road. The village of Dodington stands immediately outside the west entrance, about 300 metres north-west of the House, while the south-west boundary is formed by the lane that runs from the village to the A46. From the Bath to Stroud road the land descends about 200 metres to the level where the House is located, affording the variety much commented on by visitors. In the early 19th century Brewer noted: 'The power of contrast is seldom more forcibly exhibited than to the traveller who quits the uninteresting adjacent country, and enters the domain of Dodington. This lovely territory would, indeed, seem to stand by itself, quite unconnected with the surrounding scenery.' (Brewer 1825-7).

REFERENCES

R Atkyns, The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire (1712)

S Rudder, A New History of Gloucestershire (1779)

T Rudge, The History of the County of Gloucester (1803)

J N Brewer, Delineations of Gloucestershire (1825-7)

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975)

N Kingsley, The Country Houses of Gloucestershire, Volume Two, 1660-1830 (1992), pp 118-123

S Harding and D Lambert, Historic Parks and Gardens of Avon (1994)

D Verey and A Brooks, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds (3rd edn 1999)

T Mowl, Historic Gardens of Gloucestershire (2002)

Description written: September 2002

Edited: September 2003