Coddenham Lodge

Summary

Lodge and lodge gates to Shrubland Hall built around 1850.

Reasons for Designation

Coddenham Lodge, built around 1850, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it has an eccentric tower-like composition which accentuates its prominent position, creating a visually arresting presence at the entrance to the park;

* its asymmetrical design, which combines a split gable roof surmounted by a bellcote, staggered storey heights and a colonnade, lends aesthetic interest to every elevation;

* together with the finely wrought lodge gates and ornate gate piers which neatly join up to the picturesque gabled well-head, it aptly heralds the Italianate Shrubland Hall beyond.

Historic interest:

* it makes an important contribution to Shrubland Park, widely considered to be the most elaborate and famous gardens in Suffolk.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the Grade I registered park and garden, the Grade II* listed Hall and the two other Grade II listed lodges, along with the many other listed buildings situated throughout the estate.

History

The Shrubland estate is thought to have originated with the building of the Old Hall by the Booth family in the early C16 but in the 1770s the architect James Paine (1717-89) was commissioned by John Bacon to design a new hall on a new site. This Georgian building still forms the core of the present hall and occupies a dramatic site at the top of a steep escarpment. Sir William Middleton purchased Shrubland in 1788 and the same year commissioned Humphry Repton (1752-1818) to suggest improvements, some of which were carried out. Sir William Fowle Fowle Middleton inherited the estate from his father in 1830 and had the Hall extensively remodelled by the architect J P Gandy-Deering. In association with his nationally renowned head gardener Donald Beaton (who remained in charge at Shrubland until 1852), Sir William and Lady Middleton developed an elaborate and complex collection of gardens by the Hall and at the foot of the escarpment. In the late 1840s (possibly 1848) they commissioned Charles Barry (1795-1860) to continue to turn their ideas for an Italianate house and garden into reality, and it was during this time that Barry oversaw the creation of the Balcony Garden, the Descent, and the Lower or Panel Garden. The gardens were finally finished in 1854.
After his death in 1860, Sir William's cousin Sir George Nathaniel Broke Middleton took over the estate which in 1882 passed to his niece and her husband James St Vincent, fourth Baron de Saumarez. During their period William Robinson was consulted on modernising some of the planting. The Hall was used as a convalescent home during the First World War and the Old Hall as a brigade HQ during the Second World War. In 1965 a health clinic was established in the Hall by the sixth Baron and on his death the estate passed to the seventh Baron. The site has since been sold and remains (2021) in private ownership.

Estimates for the building of Coddenham Lodge were being made in 1848-1849, a few years after the Ipswich-Coddenham road was diverted to allow for the park to expand eastwards. This was part of the improvements that the Middletons continued to make which included the building of two other new lodges at the principal entrances to the park. The South or Barham Lodge was designed by A Roos and built in 1841, and the north-western Needham Lodge was built before 1840 but was either rebuilt or extensively altered in the 1860s, apparently to designs by Barry. Both are in the Italianate style and listed at Grade II.

The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1884 shows Coddenham Lodge with a square plan and attached gates. There is conflicting evidence regarding the date that the colonnade on the west side was added. It is not shown on the third edition OS map of 1926 but the current owner has seen photographs – one with a woman dressed in a long Edwardian dress and a postcard dated 1924 – in which the colonnade looks well-established. It was probably added sometime in the first quarter of the C20.

Coddenham Lodge was extended with a two-storey range at the south-east corner between 2015 and 2016.

Details

Lodge and lodge gates to Shrubland Hall built around 1850.

MATERIALS: gault brick laid in Flemish bond with gault brick and stone dressings, and a roof covering of slate.

PLAN: the lodge is at the north-eastern most point of Shrubland Park, situated on high ground above a retaining wall on Sandy Lane. The original mid-C19 lodge with the later colonnade on the west side form a rectangular plan.

The early C21 extension on the south-east side is not included in the listing.

EXTERIOR: the lodge is in an irregular Italianate style with a tall, narrow composition which gives the impression of a tower, emphasised by the gabled bellcote chimney and its elevated position above the road. It has two storeys and an attic under a pitched roof in which the gable has a split top, the west pitch being lower than the east. Each storey is wider than the one above, extending out on the east side under a pitched roof, the wide eaves of which are supported by shaped brackets.

A flight of stone steps on the west side leads up to a raised walkway, laid in black and buff-coloured chequerboard tiles, which wraps around the north and west sides of the lodge. This is sheltered on the west side by a colonnade which has semi-circular arches at either end supported by square brick columns with wide bases and stone capitals, and three inner square openings with unadorned columns. On the north side, the colonnade is simplified, becoming three square columns joined by a single beam, and open to the sky.

The lodge is entered on the west side through a door, replaced in 2021. The first floor is lit by a centrally placed eight-over-eight pane sash window in a moulded stone surround. The north gable end is dominated by the staggered roofs and the corbelled chimney projecting at the first floor. It rises above the ridge into a gabled bellcote with four arched openings and a chimney pot instead of a bell. The ground floor is lit on the right by a six-over-six-pane sash window in a lugged stone surround. Directly above, the first floor has a moulded stone surround, the lower half of which is bricked up and a wooden casement inserted in the upper half; and to the left is a small semicircular arch sash window with margin lights which lights the landing. The attic is lit on the left by a small window in a square opening.

The north-east corner of the lodge projects beyond the retaining wall where it forms a brick corbel. The east elevation is lit on the ground floor by a wide semicircular arch window; the top half has batwing wooden glazing bars but the multi-pane lower half is a replacement. The casement window to the left appears to be a replacement as there is more recent brickwork below. A small semi-circular window lights the staircase on the first floor, and the attic above is blind. The south elevation is lit on each floor by a different style of window: the ground floor has a six-over-six-pane sash in a lugged stone surround, the first floor has a smaller sash under a gauged brick arch, and the attic window is a casement in a plain opening.

INTERIOR: this has two rooms on the ground floor and one room on the upper floors. The joinery, fixtures and fittings are simple, as is to be expected in an estate lodge, and include two or four-panel doors with brass knobs and lock cases. The east ground-floor room retains a substantial wooden fireplace surround with a mantelshelf supported by shaped brackets, originally containing a kitchen range. The fireplace surround in the west room was made by the current owner. The closed well stair has winders at the top and a moulded handrail and chamfered square newel post. The first-floor room retains a plain wooden fireplace surround with a decorative cast-iron inset and grate.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached by a wall to the raised colonnade on the west side of the lodge is one of a pair of ornate octagonal brick gate piers. These have octagonal brick bases and moulded stone capitals surmounted by ball finials decorated with acanthus leaves and conical finials. The decorative timber gates have chamfered posts forming two large crosses, at the intersection of which are metal roundels bearing the intertwined initials W and A. Adjoining the west gate pier by a wall is the brick opening of a well, sheltered by a gabled brick semi-circular arch with a red tiled roof and bargeboards.

Sources

Books and journals
Bettley, J, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk: East, (2015)

Other
Country Life, 10 (2 November 1901), p 560; 114 (24 September 1953), p 948; (19 November 1953), p 1654; (26 November 1953), p 1734
Tom Williamson, The Landscape of Shrubland Park. A Short History (1997)

End of official list entry

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