More overlooked Lodge Park Geometry

Recent analysis has revealed additional geometric layers at Lodge Park, near Sherborne, Gloucestershire that may date to the 1620s. My earlier piece on the geometry of the boundary gates and Vitruvian layout is here. While some relationships shown below remain unproven, the mathematical precision suggests deliberate design rather than coincidence.

The Master Alignment

Buildings such as the Grandstand aren’t randomly orientated. The grandstand's orientation creates a precise alignment connecting:

1. The Triple Hundred Boundary - An Anglo-Saxon administrative point, possibly marked by a burial mound (a "mount" was removed here in the 1730s during Bridgeman's work)
2. The Twin Oaks - Late 15th-century trees through which the alignment passes
3. The stone bridge over the River Leach

Its position a gives a great view of the deer course, but not an exactly perpendicular one suggesting the pre-existing triple hundred-twin oaks alignment was used deliberately as the key. This line extends 1432 yards from the grandstand to the park boundary - exactly 880 yards multiplied by the golden ratio (1.618). The same 1432-yard dimension appears at both Sherborne Park and Greenwich Park. This distance is a new observation, and I don’t believe previous historians have identified this alignment as significant*.

The Perpendicular Pool

This is a new observation. The artificial canal in the River Leach (300 yards long, 22 yards wide) has been dismissed as 20th-century (by Historic England, no less, who also get the dimensions horribly wrong) or attributed to geological exploration for Bridgeman's planned serpentine lake.

However:

• Bridgeman's c.1730 sketch shows the pool as a pre-existing feature (greyed out beneath his bold new designs)
• Geological exploration would require oblique trenching through strata or pits, not a flat valley-bottom canal

Significantly, the pool lies exactly perpendicular (90°) to the grandstand alignment. This has not been noticed before. Extended northward, this line reaches a geometrically positioned gate in the park perimeter.

The Third Alignment

From the northern gate, a line drawn to another gate southwest of the barn crosses Bridgeman's main avenue at precisely 90°. More remarkably, this line intersects both the LIDAR-visible hexagon and octagon - only faintly recorded on Bridgeman’s plan, apparently predating his work.

The distance between the centres of these geometric shapes measures exactly 440 yards - half the 880-yard base module found throughout the parkland here, at Sherborne and at Greenwich.

Assessment

The mathematical relationships suggest these features - the pool, hexagon, and octagon - may represent an incomplete 1620s landscape design. The geometric precision (90° relationships, golden ratio proportions, modular measurements, geometric shapes) indicates sophisticated planning by someone trained in Renaissance design principles. The pool itself could be much more important than we had realised and there are other exciting aspects of the landscape in the immediate vicinity which I will address in future posts, in particular the hydrology, and the course of the odd Parish Boundary adjacent to the pool.

Lodge Park may thus preserve fragments of two incomplete landscapes: Bridgeman's 18th-century scheme overlaying an earlier 17th-century geometric design of mathematical sophistication. I’m very happy to discuss alternative conjectures or refutations. I have more mathematical analysis to come on this, if you can bear it. There is more to uncover.

*Historic England Grade 1 park listing:

*Lodge Park Gloucestershire : A rare surviving deer course and Bridgeman Layout, Katie Fretwell, Garden History Vol 23 No 2 (winter 1995) pp 133-144

*Lodge Park and Charles Bridgeman, Master of “Incomprehensible Vastness”. Nicky Smith, Garden History, Vol 34, No 2 (Winter 2006) pp 236-248

Finally, I’ve been asked to mention that the Sherborne Village Archive will be at Lodge Park on Saturday 13th September as part of National Heritage Open Days. The Lodge will be open from 11. am until 4. pm free of charge, and the archive will be providing talks on the Deer Coursing at 12 o'clock, the Park landscape at 2. pm and questions and answers about Lodge Park taken at any time.