Summer House At Woodlands Cottage

The Summer House at Woodlands Cottage is a Grade II listed building, dated 1901, built for Hon. Lady Elizabeth Biddulph of Ledbury Park. This summerhouse features a timber-framed structure with brick and roughcast panels, topped by a clay tile bellcast hipped roof that has deeply overhanging eaves, exposed rafter ends, and a lead-clad ridge with tall finials. It is designed in a Queen Anne style.

The building has a rectangular plan and consists of a single room with a lateral stack and outshuts at the back, built into the hillside. The exterior is one storey high and presents a symmetrical three-bay front. The wide central doorway has a moulded elliptical arch and is flanked by three-light windows with small panes. There are two similar windows on the side elevations. At the corners and between the side windows, baluster-shaped timber pilasters are present, and above the doorway is a carved wooden coat of arms with the date 1901. Below the windows are brick herring-bone panels, with roughcast panels above them.

Inside, the summerhouse features timber-framing with roughcast panels above the windows and a ribbed and boarded ceiling. A large inglenook in the rear wall has a moulded arch, panelled reveals, and flanking cupboards with panelled doors and plate-rails above. Above the fireplace, there is a carved wooden plaque inscribed: "To the memory of Queen Victoria 1837-1901 by the Hon. Lady Elizabeth Biddulph of her late Majesty's Household. AD 1901." Lady Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton Biddulph, who was the former Master of Queen Victoria's Household and Keeper of the Privy Purse. The summerhouse was originally located in the grounds of Ledbury Park, the family seat of the Biddulphs since around 1600.