Dodington House, Bristol, England

A medieval building existed on the site of what is now the lower lake, and the estate was the property of the Berkeley family.

In the 15th century the Wick family were the landholders, and they built a new manor house. In the 16th century the estate was purchased by the Codringtons, a local family. At the end of the 17th century it passed to a different branch of the Codrington family, who then held Dodington into the 20th century.

It was Christopher Bethell Codrington was commissioned the building and landscaping that exists today. James Wyatt began work on the house in 1798. The landscaping was the work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who began work at Dodington in 1764.

Brown opened up the valleys by tree felling, leaving specimen oaks and beeches, planted beech woods on the boundaries, created two lakes by harnessing the River Frome, and joined them with an aqueduct and Gothic cascade. Many specimen trees were planted, including Cedar of Lebanon, holm oak, fern leaved beech, walnut, Corsican pine and Norfolk Island pine. In the 1930s, terraced flower gardens were constructed on the south side of the house.

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

At the time of the Domesday survey, the manor of Dodington belonged to the family of Berkeley of Dursley, whose line ended in 1382. It came by marriage into the Wekys family, who sold it in the late 16th century to Giles Codrington. The estate was bought from his relatives by General Christopher Codrington (d 1710), governor of the Leeward Islands in about 1700. In 1712, Atkyns notes that Sir William Codrington, the General's son, 'hath a large house near the Church, and very large and beautiful gardens, and a great Estate in this Parish' (Atkyns 1712). The title of baronet was granted to the Codringtons of Dodington in 1721. Alexander Pope visited in 1728 and described the house as: 'pretty enough, the situation romantic, covered with woody hills, stumbling upon one another confusedly, and the garden makes a valley between them with some mounts and waterfalls' (quoted in Harding and Lambert 1994).

The building of the original house, replaced by the present Wyatt house, is dated to the time of Henry VIII by Leland, who also refers to 'the olde place of Dodington' being 'withyn the mote, by the new' (Mowl 2002). Atkyns (1712) ascribes it to Robert Wekys in the time of Queen Mary. Mid- to late-16th century in date, it was an H-plan, gabled house, located beside the River Frome which rises in the park and which fed a series of mill ponds and a small canal. A large walled garden stood on the area later occupied by the southern end of the early 19th century lake.

The wealth of this branch of the Codrington family derived from extensive sugar plantations in the West Indies, and the 18th century and early 19th century saw large sums invested in the estate. William, the first baronet, died in 1738 but his son, also William, who then inherited at the age of nineteen, lived until 1792. He did relatively little to the House, although it appears to have been at least refenestrated in the early 18th century, but he did address the landscape, commissioning designs, of which no record has yet come to light, by Lancelot Brown (1716-83), who was paid £1368 for two contracts between 1764 and 1767.

On the death of the second baronet in 1792, the estate was inherited by his great-nephew, Sir Christopher Bethel Codrington (1764-1843), MP for Tewkesbury. Codrington was a close friend of James Wyatt (1746-1813), who was commissioned to make substantial alterations to the house. Codrington also commissioned further landscape improvements by William Emes (1747-1813) and John Webb (1754-1828) who prepared a plan in 1793; later proposals of about 1820 are signed by John Dowding, surveyor, who may have been responsible for elements of the new design.

The estate remained intact throughout the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, until it was broken up in the 1980s. In the late 1970s Major S F B Codrington developed it as a popular local amenity, with adventure playground, shops, children's farm, miniature railway etc. In 1981 however parts of the park were sold off, and in 1984 the House and grounds were also sold. The House, gardens, and immediate parkland were bought in that year by Mr M P Kent, who after carrying out much restoration work, sold the property to Mr and Mrs Harding. The House and some 121 hectares of land are currently again on the market (November 2002).