Lenton Lodge (Former Gateway To Wollaton Park) And Attached Bollards

NOTTINGHAM

SK53NW DERBY ROAD 646-1/6/193 (North West side) 11/08/52 Lenton Lodge (former gateway to Wollaton Park) and attached bollards

GV II*

Gate lodge to Wollaton Hall (qv), now office, and attached bollards. 1823-25. By Sir Jeffrey Wyatville for the 6th Lord Middleton. Ashlar, with lead mortar and lead roofs. Elizabethan Revival style. EXTERIOR: 2 multiple side wall stacks with round flues. Moulded plinth and string course on brackets. Windows are mainly stone mullioned casements, 2 lights. Central gatehouse with domed corner turrets, flanked by screen walls concealing outbuildings, and square end pavilions. Gatehouse, 3 storeys, 3 bays, has a round-arched carriage entrance, 2 storeys, with framed wooden gates to a passage with coffered barrel vault. The gates were originally operated by an underground mechanism, which survives. On each side, round-arched pedestrian entrances, also with framed doors. Above them, single windows with strapwork panels. Above again, a panel spanning the gate, with bronze plaque with coat of arms flanked by traceried panels. Beyond, single windows. Above again, bracketed cornice and pierced balustrade. Round corner turrets, 4 stages, with pairs of round-headed windows on the lower floors, single casements on the second floor, and smaller round-arched windows above. Screen walls have each 3 strapwork gables. Projecting pavilions have round-arched niches set in blank panels, and strapwork gables with pediments. Outside, 2 sets of cast-iron bollards (38) linked by spiked chains, and arranged in unequal triangles either side of the main entrance. The chains are linked to the lodge walls by lions' head bosses. Rear elevation similar, with additional windows. Each pavilion has a traceried 2-light window. INTERIOR has ashlar floors and ceilings carried on cast-iron beams. Skirtings and dado panels are also ashlar. The original wooden doors and frames survive. HISTORICAL NOTE: this building was erected at the main entrance to Wollaton Park from Nottingham, and was linked to a high brick perimeter wall erected at the same time all round the park. The lodge, with its fireproof construction and mechanical gates, was part of a defence against riotous mobs, which were frequent in Nottinghamshire after c1815. Their culmination was the burning down of Nottingham Castle in 1831. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Nottinghamshire: London: 1979-: 280; Lindstrum D: Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, Architect to the King: Oxford: 1972-).

Listing NGR: SK5483839187