The Gate Lodge (Formerly Golden Gates Lodge)

Summary

Lodge to Lilleshall Hall, late C19.

Reasons for Designation

The Gate Lodge (formerly listed as Golden Gates Lodge) is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a picturesque Domestic Revival composition with carefully composed, characterful elevations incorporating a variety of building materials;

* a high-quality construction using good-quality materials and exhibiting expert craftsmanship;

* very little altered externally, and internally, the interesting plan form, with multiple entrances between rooms, remains legible, notwithstanding the blocked openings.

Historic interest:

* one of a number of lodges to Lilleshall Hall, illustrating the late C19 development and expansion of this important country house estate.

Group value:

* with the adjacent Grade II listed Golden Gates, marking the entrance to the Grade II registered landscape, and for its broader relationship with the other listed buildings of the large estate.

History

The Gate Lodge (formerly listed as Golden Gates Lodge and formerly known as Newport Lodge) stands at the entrance to the main northern approach to the grounds of Lilleshall Hall. The hall (listed Grade II*) was built in 1829 by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville for Earl Gower, the first Duke of Sutherland. The lodge, previously named for its association with the adjacent wrought iron gates (listed Grade II), is one of a group of six, which were added to the estate at the end of the C19 by the fourth Duke of Sutherland.

The fifth Duke sold the estate towards the end of the First World War. Sales particulars from 1917 include 12 lodges. The group of six to which The Gate Lodge belongs are described as containing a porch, entrance lobby, parlour, kitchen, scullery, larder, three bedrooms, coal store, tool house and pigsty, and either a WC or EC. All were built to a very similar design, though with subtle differences in detail, such as the treatment of the chimneystacks.

Details

Lodge to Lilleshall Hall, late C19.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond, with sandstone dressings, half timbering, and fishscale and plain clay tiled roofs.

PLAN: the building stands to the south of the ‘Golden Gates’, at the main northern entrance to the grounds of Lilleshall Hall. The lodge stands on the west side of the drive, and has an irregular footprint, with projecting bays and inset doorways.

EXTERIOR: a picturesque, Domestic Revival-style building of a single storey and attic. The ground floor is brick with a stone plinth, and has deep, rusticated quoins and sills. There are various projecting bay windows: rectangular, canted, and triangular, containing timber-framed two-light casement windows. A large porch on the east elevation is the main entrance; it is enclosed by a stone plinth topped by a timber balustrade, and moulded timber posts support a lean-to roof with a central cross pitch. The porch has a quarry tiled floor, and contains two four-panel front doors. A third entrance is recessed on the south elevation, and a fourth is on the rear of the building, now within an outshut. Moulded consoles support the jettied upper floor, which has decorative timberwork. The roof consists of intersecting pitches to create gables on each elevation; these have shaped bargeboards and tall finials. The ridges are lined with pierced cresting tiles, and there are two pairs of octagonal chimneystacks with stone dressings. To the west of the house a wall retains the higher ground of the garden; on the ground floor, a lean-to extension has been added between the elevation and the retaining wall.

INTERIOR: the internal plan form survives largely unaltered, and is distinctive for the routes of circulation on the ground floor, where doorways provide multiple entrances into each room. The front door into the lounge, and the doorway between the dining room and kitchen have been blocked. The dining room retains a cast iron chimneypiece. The stair is enclosed and the attic landing has a balustrade of stick balusters and a chamfered handrail. A small cast iron chimneypiece survives in one bedroom.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21/12/2020 to update the name.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (2006)

Other
Lilleshall House and Estate Particulars, 1917, ref SC00874 (SC00874A associated maps), Archive, Historic England, Swindon

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