Tong Lodge

SJ 70 NE 6/42

TONG CP Ruckley NEACHLEY LANE Tong Lodge

II Tower, now house. Late C18 with mid C19 additions. Red brick with slate roofs. Octagonal C18 Gothick tower partially encased by later H-plan house with gabled wings to front and back. Two storeys.

Entrance front: gabled semi-dormer off-centre to left with canted oriel window; three stacks with grouped octagonal shafts. Flanking wings with two storey canted bays, first floor canted oriel window off-centre to right, and central four-panelled door with side lights. Garden front: central octagonal tower with plat bands, recessed quatrefoil panels above first floor windows, battlemented parapet with stone coping, stack to right with two octagonal shafts, and pyramidal roof with weathervane. First floor arched casements with recessed arched tympana; C19 ground floor canted bay with parapet, central French casements, and flanking sashes. Right-hand wing with two storey canted bay, and left-hand wing with first floor casement and two ground floor casements.

Interior: tower with ground floor Ionic chimneypiece and first floor arcaded Gothic frieze. The tower was probably built as a prospect tower on the Tong Estate as it displays many design features to 'Capability' Brown's Gothick Tong Castle (qv) and associated buildings (qv Convent Lodge, wall approximately 10 metres to East of Convent Lodge, The Old Post Office, North gates and flanking walls, etc.) The towers form echoes that of the tower and spire of the Church of St. Bartholomew at Tong (qv) which can be seen from it.

Listing NGR: SJ7832306815