Pope's Seat, Cirencester Park

Pope's Seat is a small stone pavilion at Seven Rides in Cirencester Park, where several of the park's rides meet about 2km west of the Bathurst house in Cirencester. It is named after the poet Alexander Pope, who from 1718 helped Allen Bathurst, later the first Earl, lay out the park he had begun in about 1714. It is listed Grade II* and stands beside the Polo Ground.

History

Pope's Seat belongs to the first years of Cirencester Park. Allen Bathurst began planting the park in about 1714, and Pope, his friend and adviser, first came to Cirencester in 1718 and worked with him on the house and the landscape. The listing dates the pavilion to the early eighteenth century and calls it a landscape building; the walk leaflet for our Pope's Seat route says Pope designed it himself, though the listing does not name an architect.

The seat stands where the rides meet at Seven Rides, one of the main junctions in the park's network of straight rides cut through the woods and meeting at viewpoints. From here the Broad Ride runs on west to Ten Rides in Oakley Wood and Alfred's Hall, the sham ruin Pope and Bathurst built from 1721.

What to look for

The pavilion is small, built of limestone, with a Doric portico of two columns set between flanking screen walls. Look for:

• The front worked in vermiculated rustication, stone carved to look worm-eaten
• POPE'S SEAT cut into the open pediment over the opening
• Round-headed niches with keystones in the screens
• Ball finials on the corner pilasters
• Inside, roughcast walls over a floor of limestone setts, and a round-headed opening at the back

Visiting

Pope's Seat is inside Cirencester Park, which is a private estate open every day; you need a Bathurst Estate pass to walk in it, either a Day Pass bought online or at the Cecily Hill or Windsor Walk ticket offices, or an annual or community pass. Day Pass visitors can enter from 10am, passholders from 8am, and last entry is 4.30pm. Dogs keep to the marked dog walking routes and go on a lead in the woodland walks; the estate does not allow them on the grass of the central Broad Ride, and usually not on the grass at Seven Rides around the seat. Cycling is not allowed. There are no toilets in the park; the nearest, with an accessible one, are at the Old Kennels car park.

Getting there

From the town, walk up Cecily Hill to the park gates and follow the Broad Ride west for about 2km to Seven Rides. By car, the Old Kennels car park (GL7 1UR, short stay, charged and cashless) leads into the park along Windsor Walk, where there is a second ticket office.

On foot, Cirencester Park, Pope's Seat and Stratton, a 5-mile (8km) circular walk from the west door of the parish church, spends a mile on the Broad Ride to reach the seat, then turns past the polo grounds towards Stratton and comes back down Dollar Street. The 2022 leaflet sends walkers with dogs on a signed diversion by the Ewe Pens Cottages.

Nearby

The rest of Cirencester Park spreads out from Seven Rides, with the Hexagon closer to the town and Alfred's Hall far out in Oakley Wood. The Broad Ride starts at St John the Baptist's Church on the Market Place. In the town, the Corinium Museum holds the Roman finds, and the Gilbertine, the Black Horse and the King's Head are close to the church for lunch. Our story on the great gardens of the Cotswolds and our guide to Cirencester cover the rest.