Cirencester Park and Sezincote House

Enjoy exclusive guided tours of two contrasting and unique country houses in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds.

Discover Grade II* Cirencester Park, the seat of the Bathurst family since the 17th century. The original Tudor-Jacobean house, surrounded by a 3,000-acre Grade I listed park, was rebuilt in 1715 with new facades to the main front resulting in the classical appearance we see today. Further changes were made in 1810 when the 3rd Earl engaged Robert Smirke to demolish the West Porch and add the North Wing. In 1830 Smirke returned to rebuild the East Facade. The house contains portraits by Romney, Lawrence, Lely, Reynolds and Kneller and various impressive artefacts collected in Italy by Lord Apsley. 

Sezincote historic oriental garden

Later explore Sezincote House, the only Mughal building surviving in western Europe. After winding through the mighty oaks that line the drive, a weathered-copper onion dome comes into view. The south front, complete with curving orangery, unfurls above a Repton landscape that has remained unchanged since the mid-19th century. The garden is blessed by a series of spring-fed pools, connected by gurgling water which eventually tumbles into the Island Pool in the valley bottom, before joining the River Evenlode below. The house was the whim of Colonel John Cockerell, grandson of the diarist Samuel Pepys, who returned to England having amassed a fortune in the East India Company. John died in 1798, three years after his return, and the estate passed to his youngest brother Charles who had also worked for the company. He commissioned his brother Samuel, an architect, to design and build an Indian house in the Mogul style of Rajasthan, complete with minarets, peacock-tail windows, jali-work railings and pavilions. Once completed, Sezincote dazzled all who came. When the Prince Regent visited in 1807, an event commemorated in a Daniell painting owned by the family, he was so impressed that he changed his plans for the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

Tickets £66 including a two-course lunch with tea or coffee at Number Four at Stow. Lunch options to be made available to attendees in September 2024.