Survey Data
Reg No
12325012
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Original Use
Gate lodge
Date
1700 - 1839
Coordinates
245956, 122002
Date Recorded
05/07/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge with half-dormer attic, extant 1839, on a rectangular plan. Now disused. Pitched slate roof including gablets to window openings to half-dormer attic, terracotta ridge tiles, red brick Running bond chimney stacks having corbelled stepped capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves with cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls. Square-headed central door opening with overgrown threshold, and concealed dressings framing glazed timber panelled door. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills, and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of Willmount House with repointed ashlar chamfered piers to perimeter having ogee-detailed cornices below ball finial-topped capping supporting flat iron "farm gate".
Appraisal
A gate lodge contributing positively to the setting of the Willmount House estate with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling a later gate lodge on the Bessborough House estate (see 12325029), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a featureless doorcase; the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings; and the gablets embellishing a high pitched roof. A prolonged period out of use notwithstanding, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of historic fabric, thus upholding the character of a gate lodge forming part of a self-contained group alongside an adjacent gateway with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.