Summary
Lodge and gate piers to Anstey Hall built in 1865.
Reasons for Designation
The lodge and gate piers to Anstey Hall, built in 1865, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is an excellent example of a picturesque estate building in the High Victorian Gothic style, characterised by an asymmetrical composition and meticulous detailing that lends distinctive aesthetic interest to each elevation;
* equal attention is given to all elements of the design, including the decorative walls and gate, and the carreaux d’octagone tiled porch, overall creating a visually arresting lodge that aptly heralds the Hall itself.
Group value:
* it has group value with the Grade II* listed Hall which, along with the other (unlisted) associated outbuildings, form an important architectural and historic context for the lodge.
History
Anstey Hall was rebuilt on the site of a medieval manor house around 1600 by Edmund Bacchus who died about 1609. It was inherited by his son who sold it in 1637 to James Thompson, the son of a Cambridge tailor. The house was then rebuilt around 1685 by Anthony Thompson, Deputy Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire (1698-1701). Around 1750 the estate came into the hands of the Anstey family, who renamed it Anstey Hall, but they did not live there after the 1770s, instead letting the Hall with 85 acres to Nathaniel Wedd from the 1790s to c1805, and to John Hemington of Denny Abbey between 1814 and 1836. From the 1840s the Fosters, a family of non-conformist bankers, resided in Anstey Hall. They extended the Hall eastward by three bays to a design matching the 1685 house, and in the 1860s they built a large range of outbuildings to the east, including stabling, a water tower and lodge. Evidence from sales particulars and historic maps shows that there had been a range of outbuildings with similar functions on largely the same site but these were completely rebuilt by the Fosters.
The identity of the architect of these outbuildings is unknown, although there is some speculation that it could be one of the three architects with whom Foster worked. Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880) designed the Roman Baths in Jesus Lane, Cambridge for Foster in 1862; Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905) designed Foster’s Bank in Sydney Street; and William Butterfield (1814-1900) designed the school and school-house (Grade II) for Trinity College in Trumpington, just opposite Anstey Hall. Stylistically, the Gothic lodge is more akin to Butterfield’s work but given the lack of evidence, any attribution can only remain speculative.
During the Second World War, soldiers were stationed in Nissan huts within the grounds of Anstey Hall. In 1950 it was acquired by the Ministry of Agriculture for the Plant Breeding Research Institute which developed new plants, notably the Maris Piper and Maris Peer potatoes, named after the location of the Hall on Maris Lane. In 1998 Anstey Hall was purchased from the government by the current owner who runs it as a hotel and wedding/ conference venue (2021).
Details
Lodge and gate piers to Anstey Hall built in 1865.
PLAN: the lodge is situated in the north-east corner of the west courtyard, facing north onto Maris Lane.
MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with polychromatic dressings of red and gault brick and a slate roof covering.
EXTERIOR: the highly decorative lodge is in the Ruskinian Gothic style. The asymmetrical building has one and a half storeys under a steeply pitched roof which is hipped on all sides and dominated by half-hipped gables on the north and west sides. These have bargeboards forming a wide trefoil arch punctuated by roundels of deeply carved floral motifs. Tall triple chimney stacks with oversailing brick eaves rise from the centre of the roof. The fenestration mostly consists of pairs of narrow casement windows with gault brick mullions and blocked jambs (echoing the quoins), and stone lintels and cills. Above the windows are polychromatic shallow pointed relieving arches.
The principal north elevation is stepped back from Maris Lane behind a small entrance yard enclosed by a low brick wall and iron railings with banded brick square piers and an iron gate with a flower decoration. The entrance, laid in red and black tiles in a carreaux d’octagone pattern, is recessed behind a pair of wide semi-circular arches of banded brick, the central pier in the form of a stone column surmounted by a capital embellished with flowers carved in high relief. Above is a decorative stone roundel containing a carved foliate round-lobed trefoil bearing a shield with the date 1865 and initials AFF. Three single windows light the ground floor and pair of windows in the gable head light the floor above.
Adjoining the right side is a door set within an archway, similar in style to the pair of arches already described. Attached is one of a pair of substantial square gate piers with moulded stone caps, leading into the west courtyard. The other gate pier is attached to the cart shed. A small yard on the west side of the lodge is enclosed by a low brick wall with a gault brick plinth, curved coping with a sawtooth cornice, and regularly spaced piers. The west elevation has an archway on the left side providing access from the front to the yard, and a pair of windows in the gable head. The rear (south) elevation has a pair of ground-floor windows and two hipped gable dormer windows (the gables of different sizes) with decorative bargeboards. On the right side is a projecting single-storey range under a pitched roof, probably originally housing the service rooms. The four-panelled door has blocked quoins, a chamfered lintel and relieving arch, flanked by a sash-window to the left and a casement window to the right with similar dressings as the door. On the east elevation is a tall single-storey projection of gault brick (as it faces into the secondary east courtyard) with a steeply pitched half-hipped roof, each pitch sweeping down very low. It has a plank door with a cambered brick arch and oculus above, flanked by very narrow openings which have been bricked up.
INTERIOR: the lodge has been extensively modernised internally and is understood to retain no historic fixtures or fittings. It is in use as domestic accommodation.
