Sherborne House, Cheltenham, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Sir Thomas Dutton (died 1581) acquired the manor of Sherborne, before the Dissolution a possession of Winchcombe Abbey, in 1552. Before the end of the century his son William (died 1618) had inclosed a deer park north-east of the House. William's son Sir John Dutton (died 1657), known as 'Crump' Dutton from his hunchback, created a new deer park (Lodge Park - see separate description of this site in the Register) 4 kilometres to the south-west in about 1630. He was succeeded by his nephew, William (died 1675), and he by his son Ralph (died 1721), who dissipated the family fortune by gambling and sporting. In 1709 the estate was transferred to his son, the cultured John Dutton (died 1743), whose two marriages to heiresses allowed improvements to the estate, including the construction of new gardens in the 1720s. His heir was his nephew John Lenox Naper (died 1776), who took the name Dutton. His son and heir, James Dutton (died 1820), was created Lord Sherborne in 1784. Further estate works, including the rebuilding of Sherborne village, took place in the middle of the 19th century. The family stayed at Sherborne until the Second World War. Sherborne Park was sold in 1971 and converted to flats in 1981, and its stables also in the early 1980s. The estate was bequeathed to the National Trust, in whose ownership it remains (1999), by the seventh Lord Sherborne on his death in 1982.