The Lodge

The Lodge is a gatehouse built in 1837, attributed to the architect E.W. Pugin, who also designed Croston Hall, which has since been demolished. This mid-19th century structure features smooth red brick with ashlar stone dressings, tall chimneys with elaborate corbelled caps, and a blue tile roof adorned with decorative banding and intricately crested ridge tiles.

The Lodge has a T-shaped layout, consisting of a two-storey section facing the approach drive to the east and a single-storey service range at the rear. The east elevation showcases two storeys and two bays rising from a shallow plinth, with an advanced monopitch porch that includes a four-centre arch-headed doorway beneath an elaborate decorative gablet. The entrance features a planked and studded door, flanked by single lancet windows on the porch cheeks, and a two-light window with arched heads in the right-hand bay. The south gable has a bay window beneath a sloping roof, with two lights at the front and single side lights. The upper floor has a window opening with a shouldered ashlar lintel and an arch-shaped head, featuring a 2 over 2 pane sash window above, complemented by plain barge boards and a decorative iron finial. The single-storey rear range has a doorway near the junction with the main range, set within a steeply-pitched porch canopy that features an arched head with decorative brick and stone patterning above. This doorway has a half-glazed door and a single light window to the right. All door and window surrounds are detailed with recessed and corbelled brickwork. The entrance is flanked by coursed rubble walls with shallow buttresses and angle buttresses, topped with steeply-pitched ashlar copings, extending along the road frontage to the east and west.

The Lodge was originally constructed as the gatehouse for Croston Hall, the residence of the de Trafford family. Although the Hall was demolished in the 1960s, the Lodge retains some of its detailing and is believed to be the work of E.W. Pugin.