Redbourne Hall Lodge And Gateway

Redbourne Hall Lodge and Gateway

Gateway, wing walls and lodge, designed in 1775-6 by John Carr of York for the Reverend Robert Carter Thelwall. The complex underwent alterations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when it was adapted for the Duke of St Albans estate, with the lodge and screen wall added to the left at this time.

The gateway and wing walls are constructed of rough-faced limestone ashlar with smooth-faced ashlar dressings, while the screen wall to the left is of squared limestone with ashlar dressings. The lodge is built of coursed limestone rubble with rendered brick stacks and a slate roof. The design employs the Gothick style throughout.

The gateway is tripartite in composition, with a central carriage arch flanked by pedestrian arches. It is framed by square turrets and wing walls approximately 3 metres high extending roughly 6 metres to either side, with lower outer sections extending about 4 metres further. The screen wall to the left extends approximately 30 metres to its outer pier. The lodge adjoins to the rear, alongside the left pedestrian gateway.

The central gateway breaks forward with a chamfered round arch, enriched with cross-shaped arrow loops to the pier and a moulded impost band that extends to either side as a string course. Paired ashlar relief panels in the spandrels depict farming scenes with cattle and cow herds. A moulded string course and plain coped embattled parapet run across the top, with a later raised central pedestal bearing an ashlar tablet carved with the Duke of St Albans' monogram and coronet in relief, surmounted by a carved lion passant wearing a coronet. The chamfered round-arched pedestrian gateways to either side have impost string courses and are flanked by projecting square turrets. Each turret contains a single cross-shaped arrow loop and a corbelled-out top stage surmounted by a carved seated lion holding a shield. The wing walls feature a single square-headed 3-light traceried window with Gothick glazing to the lodge on the left; a similar dummy window appears on the right. A string course runs across the higher sections, and crenellations extend throughout.

The rear elevation carries a pair of ashlar relief panels in the spandrels depicting a maid milking and a shepherd boy with his flock. The wrought-iron gates at the centre have plain bars and dog bars with fleur-de-lys finials and scrolled panels between double bottom, middle and top rails, the latter ramped up to the outside. Similar single pedestrian gates are also ramped up to the outside.

The lodge has a 4-room plan with central entrances to the south and east; its west side adjoins the gateway. The south front is single storey, three bays, and symmetrical, with quoins. A pointed entrance with a recessed 6-beaded-panel door in a chamfered architrave is flanked by pointed 2-light Y-traceried windows with chamfered wooden mullions and Gothick glazing. The roof is hipped with twin diamond-shafted central stacks. The right return, facing the park, has a similar door with two central glazed panels and a single similar window.

The fine ashlar relief panels, now somewhat weathered, are similar to a pair formerly in a stableyard wall at No. 5 Redbourne Hall. Estate accounts record payments for the gateway to a mason called Bell in November 1775 and to a carver called Manning in July 1776.