Building record 3321/0/20 - Avenue Lodges & Attached Screen Forming Principal Entrance to Castle Ashby Park

Lodges and entrance screen. 1868 by E.W. Godwin. Coursed squared limestone with limestone dressings, plain-tile roofs and stone ridge stacks to lodges.

{1} Lodges and entrance screen. 1868 by E.W. Godwin. Coursed squared limestone with limestone dressings, plain-tile roofs and stone ridge stacks to lodges. L plans. 2-storey, 2-window ranges. Lodges form symmetrical composition either end of entrance screen with a cross-wing innermost. Gable ends of cross wings have shallow 2-storey oriel windows with leaded stone mullion and transom windows to front and 1-light windows with transoms to sides. Wings either side have 5-light leaded stone mullion window to ground floor and tall gabled dormer window above with leaded stone cross windows. Splayed plinths and stone-coped gables with kneelers and finials. Entrances to inner sides within screen with stone lintels and plank doors and canted bay window to one side next to screen. Gate-screen has central triumphal arch in French Renaissance style. Round-headed archway with keyblock and carved spandrels, flanked by plain pilasters with Renaissance composed Capitals. Frieze with Compton crests, steep hipped stone roof with elaborate cartouche of arms framed by pilastered and gabled dormer. Finials to roof and dormer. Double cast-iron gates. Screen flanking gateway has balustrades punctuated by tall piers banded with ironstone. The Avenue Lodge and screen stand at the principal entrance to the park of Castle Ashby and the avenue over one and a half miles long aligned on the entrance front. They form part of the extensive improvements made by the 3rd Marquis of Northampton. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: 1973, p145).

{4} At its end, where the Avenue meets the A428, are Avenue Lodges (listed grade II), widely spaced two-storey lodges linked by a stone screen with central arched gateway, all of 1868 and designed in French Renaissance style by E W Godwin (d 1886). This entrance is all of horizontally banded ironstone and limestone, as is the screen with gates (listed grade II) on the opposite, south side of the road, presumably also by Godwin, at the start of the continuation of the Grand Avenue to Yardley Chase. The metalled road up the Avenue does not continue south of the A428.

{5} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 6/186 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F12 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.145 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> English Heritage, 1994, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1994, Northamptonshire), (unchecked) (Report). SNN1324.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Yardley Hastings (Photographs). SNN114340.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2025 2:03PM