Entrance Lodge At Margaret Beavan Special School

The Entrance Lodge at Margaret Beavan Special School is a lodge built around 1880, with some additions and alterations made in the late 20th century. It is believed to be designed by J. Francis Doyle, a Liverpool architect. The lodge is constructed of smooth red brick and features a tall clustered chimney stack, topped with a Westmorland slate roof that is laid in diminishing courses.

The building has an irregular T-plan layout, with a gabled entrance front. A catslide roof forms a porch over the doorway located to the right. The left gable rises two stories and showcases decorative brickwork at the apex that mimics the appearance of a strutted king post truss. Below this gable, there are two 2-light casement windows, each with six panes, set beneath gauged brick arches and flanked by blind panels with roughcast facings. A dog-tooth band runs above a central tall 3-light casement window in the gable, with each light containing eight panes. The panelled door is set within a recess beneath the catslide roof, supported by a timber bracket at the corner post.

To the right, a set-back gable features a shallow first-floor 3-light window above a taller 2-light window on the ground floor. At the rear, there is a flat-roofed single-storey addition from the 20th century.

The interior has not been inspected. To the left of the front gable, a short flanking wall, approximately 2 meters high, extends further left and includes a doorway leading to the rear garden. This wall connects to a stone wall that continues forward to a corner pier and then right as a low stone boundary wall, topped with half-round copings and cast-iron railings. The boundary wall ends at an entrance gateway formed by low stone gate piers with moulded caps and a railed gate. The lodge is part of a group with the Margaret Beavan School and the boundary wall, gate piers, and postbox nearby.