Survey Data
Reg No
11805002
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Original Use
Gate lodge
Date
1700 - 1837
Coordinates
297469, 233320
Date Recorded
10/01/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay two-storey gate lodge, extant 1837, on an L-shaped plan; single-bay two-storey bow-ended projecting end bay. Now disused. Pitched slate roof behind parapet; bow-ended pitched slate roof (end bay), quatrefoil-perforated crested terracotta ridge tiles, coping to gable (south) with rendered red brick Running bond chimney stack to apex having red brick corbelled stepped capping supporting yellow terracotta pots, and concealed rainwater goods with cast-iron rainwater goods (end bay) retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast battered walls on rendered plinth with coping to parapet. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite or cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Street fronted on a corner site.
Appraisal
A gate lodge contributing positively to the group and setting values of the Castletown estate with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form; the eye-catching drum-like bow; the disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing; and the high pitched roof. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a gate lodge forming part of a self-contained group alongside an adjacent gate lodge (see 11805001) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in Main Street. NOTE: The gate lodge is a candidate for the lodge described in a letter (1st October 1783) by Lady Louisa Conolly (1743-1821) as 'very comfortable for the old couple that inhabit it...I am now actually employed in planting and making it pretty all about' (cf. 11805063).