Building record 4770/0/4 - South Lodges & Gateways to Easton Neston House (aka First Lodge)

Lodges, gates and gatepiers. 1822-3 by John Raffield for 3rd Earl of Pomfret.

{1} Lodges, gates and gatepiers. 1822-3 by John Raffield for 3rd Earl of Pomfret. Limestone ashlar, slate roofs, brick ridge stack to left lodge, stone ridge stack to right lodge. Cast-iron gates with spear finials. Rusticated stone gatepiers with alternate bands of vermiculation. Plain plinths, horizontal oval paterae to frieze, moulded cornices, topped by urns with ball finials. Piers are joined to lodges either side by stone-coped walls each with round-arched pedestrian gateway and cast-iron gate finials. Small single-storey pedimented lodge pavilions have Venetian window in shallow round-arched recess, plinth, impost band, upright oval paterae flanking head of window recess which has keyblock, and moulded stone eaves. Inner side elevations, facing drive, have sash window and 4-panel door within screen wall both with stone lintels, and pair of upright oval vermiculated panels above. Lean-to extensions to outer sides.

{2} Lodge built 1822/3 by J. Raffield for the 3rd Earl of Pomfret. Gateways to park/house are cast-iron.

{4} Front elevation.

{6} Archaeological recording and analysis prior to selective deomlition and repair designed to restore the Lodge to its original plan and aspect. The development of the Lodge is now better understood. They seem to have become houses in their own right and been in use between the World Wars. At that point investment stopped and they were not upgraded, leading to abandonment.
Both the north and south Lodge structures were built as mirror-images of each other both in plan and aspect. Their symmetry was intended to complement the three-part gateway which they flank. Both were constructed on brick foundations, of which one or two courses remain visible at the foot of the walls. The brick was carried up to form the interior structure, all the way up to and including the gables, forming a single internal room 3.9m x 3m. This was then faced in good Blisworth limestone, a material then used in all of the exterior architectural detailing.
Architecturally, the exterior combines Classicising and Italianate elements, and comprises an ensemble of plain plinth, string, cornice and pediment, the road-facing (west) front is pierced by a large Venetian window with stone mullions set within an otherwise blind Roman arch with a stressed keystone. In each of the spandrels lie individual, slightly stylised oval volutes or paterae. The southern building is exactly the same. More detail of the gate-facing elevations and park-facing elevations is given. Also details of internal fixtures and fittings. According to Pevsner the lodges were built in 1822.
On the park perimeter wall to the south of the south building lie scars and projections which suggest that there was previously a separate lean-to building there. This probably included a fireplace and a doorway. Buried remains of this building’s plan may survive.
To the outer side elevation of each lodge building had been added an outshut of unequal size, probably during the 1920s or 1930s. Each was very plain internally, but had a fireplace in its outer wall, a casement window in its rear park-facing wall. Each was accessed via a doorway cut through the original lodge structure. The extensions were built of Blisworth limestone, but inexpertly constructed when compared with the original lodge structure.
To the outside of the outshut on the North Lodge was added a 2.6m x 1.9m further phase of building which housed the remains of a bathroom which contained the only attempt to introduce mains water into the buildings. This addition was removed as part of the current works, which demolished all of the C20th additions.

{8} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 6/72 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F10 p.34 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.205 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> Cunningham; Ellis; Buckle, 1999, The First Lodge, Northampton Road, (checked) (Drawing). SNN105508.

<5> HET Buildings Conservation Team, 1993-2006, Buildings Planning Files, E092/2/11 (part checked) (HET Planning File (Buildings)). SNN105512.

<6> Soden I., 2009, Recording and Analysis of First Lodge, Easton Neston House, Towcester, Northamptonshire August-September 2009, (checked) (Report). SNN106541.

<7> Horne B. (Editor), 2010, South Midlands Archaeology (40), p.16 (checked) (Journal). SNN107083.

<8> Photographs of buildings in Easton Neston (Photographs). SNN111650.

Record last edited

Aug 7 2024 12:42PM