Dunchurch Lodge

Details

DUNCHURCH
SP4871 RUGBY ROAD
1724/11/10005 Dunchurch Lodge
18-JAN-01

GV II*

Country house and adjoining dining room and service buildings. House and service buildings 1906-07 by Gilbert Fraser of Liverpool for John Lancaster. Dining room 1950-52, by Press & Wright of Rugby, for the English Electric Co. Mid and late C20 alterations.
Red brick with ashlar dressings and hipped Westmoreland slate roofs. Coped brick ridge and side wall stacks. Renaissance Revival style of c1700. Plinth, quoins, dentillated eaves. Windows are mainly stone mullioned cross-casements with leaded glazing. Dormers have glazing bar casements with alternating gabled and segmental pediments. 2 storeys plus basement and attics. 3 x 5 bays.
L-plan, with single storey service buildings to north and dining room to east. Symmetrical entrance front has a stone porte-cochere with columns and elliptical arches flanked by double pilasters, with the owner's monogram, wreaths and swags above. Plain central opening framing panelled double doors, flanked by single windows. Above, 3 windows. On each side, a canted bay window, 2 storeys, S lights, and above again, S dormers. To right, the dining room, single storey, 3 bays. Central window, 7 lights, with Renaissance ornament to the lintel, flanked by canted bay windows, S lights. Similar bay window to north.
Asymmetrical garden front, to south, has canted bay windows in alternate bays, with S-light windows between those to the left. To right, the stone faced entrance bay, with a round arched doorway under a hood carried on Doric columns, double keystone and half -glazed panelled door with sidelights. Above, a S-light window with swags and festoons to the lintel. Above again, S dormers. West end, single bay, has a 4-light window on each floor and a dormer above, with an additional single light on the first floor to left. North side has four 3-light windows and 3 dormers, and to right, a single storey flat roofed projection.
Symmetrical west front, 3 bays, has an enriched pedimented doorcase with elongated double keystone and half-glazed door. Above it, a tall double-transomed window and above again, a round arched window with sidelights under a pediment. On each side, canted bay windows, 3 storeys, with 3 lights on each floor, cornices and half-round pediments. The former pool court is crossed by a late C20 external corridor.
The service buildings comprise a double gabled range with a large external stack, and a yard enclosed by a wall with minor buildings including a pyramid-roofed game larder.
INTERIOR: Entrance hall has fielded panelled dado, dentillated cornice and heavily enriched panelled ceiling. Original stone fireplace with moulded surround. Drawing room has heavily enriched frieze, dentillated cornice and enriched panelled ceiling, enriched doorcase with segmental pediment and C18 inlaid marble fireplace with figurative panel. Morning room, to south front, has cornice. Fully panelled billiard room has inglenook with wooden Ionic columns and chimneypiece with Doric columns, in early C 18 style. Late C20 suspended ceiling. Original dining room, to east front, has panelled dado, exposed joists and Classical style wooden fireplace flanked by 2-panel doors with eared architraves. Corridors and former gun room have cornices. Stair hall has Ionic columns and pilasters, and enriched panelled ceiling. Open-well major stair has panelled dado, enriched panelled newels, turned balusters and moulded ramped handrail. On the first floor landing, a segmental pediment on Doric pilasters. Dogleg minor stair has square newels and stick and splat balusters. First floor rooms and corridors have cornices and mainly original doors. Plain attics have some original fireplaces.
Dunchurch Lodge is the outstanding centrepiece of a major estate, designed by Gilbert Fraser with his long-time collaborator, Thomas Mawson, the celebrated landscape architect. This is one of their most complete surviving ensembles.


Listing NGR: SP4900271300

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