Copley Lodge And Attached Estate Wall

Copley Lodge and Attached Estate Wall

Copley Lodge is a Gothic style lodge built in 1867 for the Copley estate, constructed in rock-faced red sandstone with ashlar dressings and a decorative patterned slate roof featuring fishscale detailing. The building is 1½ storeys and follows a reverse L-shaped plan with a canted south-east corner entrance, projecting front and left wings, with the front wing facing Manor Road.

The exterior is highly decorative. Both the front and left side elevations are identically styled with projecting gabled bays incorporating canted ground floors containing wide 3-light segmental pointed windows with sashes of shaped heads, carved ribbon and shield motifs to the tympanum, and similar styled side lights. The first floor is supported on corbelled vaulted ribs with pendants over the canted side bays. A projecting central section contains a tall pointed 2-light tracery style window with a diamond-shaped foil above, with a low balcony in front featuring a pierced balustrade. The main entrance is positioned at the canted south-east corner between the front and left elevations, with a segmental pointed doorway, hoodmould with carved foliage bosses, and a replaced door. Above the entrance are two carved corbels flanking a stone ribbon and shield motif incorporating the date '1867', with a flat hood above. Two shaped side wall chimney stacks rise from the rear and right side elevations. Windows throughout incorporate 1-over-1 sashes. A corbel table runs along the eaves line and is replicated to the rear and right side of the property. The rear elevation is plainer, with a gabled section containing a 2-light segmental pointed window to the ground floor and a narrower single light window to the first floor. A decorative ridge crest matches that of the main house, ancillary ranges and Copley Cottages. Original bargeboards have been removed from both elevations. A mid-late 20th century outshut extension has been added to the rear.

The interior retains original doors, a timber stair to the rear, a Gothic style fireplace and moulded cornicing to the left ground floor room, although the fireplace to the front ground floor room has been replaced.

The attached estate boundary wall is constructed of rock-faced sandstone and curves outward from the front gable of the building to the right side. A decorative ashlar section to the left side features pierced segmental pointed openings with carved copings. A timber pedestrian gate with decorative pierced ironwork to the upper part is set within a hoodmould with carved foliage bosses and a carved Flemish style stone surround. An adjacent shaped octagonal gate pier incorporates a tall pointed cap with dentils and a foliage-shaped finial. A plain curved wall extends to the left, partly repaired with modern stone opposite the gate pier. The original gates have been removed.

Copley was constructed circa 1866–68 as a private residence to the designs of an unknown architect. It is believed to have been built for Stephen Williamson, a Scottish Member of Parliament whose son, Archibald Williamson, later became Baron Forres in 1922. The estate was subsequently purchased by the 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who owned and lived in the neighbouring property Thornton Manor, largely for its land. The house and associated lodge, cottages and outbuildings, along with one field, were then resold. The house remained in private ownership until the Second World War, when it became a corn exchange. Around 1947, the house and its associated buildings were purchased by the 2nd Viscount Leverhulme. The buildings remain in residential use.