The Gate Lodge (Formerly Golden Gates Lodge)

Lodge to Lilleshall Hall, late C19.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond, with sandstone dressings, half timbering, and fishscale and plain clay tiled roofs.

PLAN: the building stands to the south of the ‘Golden Gates’, at the main northern entrance to the grounds of Lilleshall Hall. The lodge stands on the west side of the drive, and has an irregular footprint, with projecting bays and inset doorways.

EXTERIOR: a picturesque, Domestic Revival-style building of a single storey and attic. The ground floor is brick with a stone plinth, and has deep, rusticated quoins and sills. There are various projecting bay windows: rectangular, canted, and triangular, containing timber-framed two-light casement windows. A large porch on the east elevation is the main entrance; it is enclosed by a stone plinth topped by a timber balustrade, and moulded timber posts support a lean-to roof with a central cross pitch. The porch has a quarry tiled floor, and contains two four-panel front doors. A third entrance is recessed on the south elevation, and a fourth is on the rear of the building, now within an outshut. Moulded consoles support the jettied upper floor, which has decorative timberwork. The roof consists of intersecting pitches to create gables on each elevation; these have shaped bargeboards and tall finials. The ridges are lined with pierced cresting tiles, and there are two pairs of octagonal chimneystacks with stone dressings. To the west of the house a wall retains the higher ground of the garden; on the ground floor, a lean-to extension has been added between the elevation and the retaining wall.

INTERIOR: the internal plan form survives largely unaltered, and is distinctive for the routes of circulation on the ground floor, where doorways provide multiple entrances into each room. The front door into the lounge, and the doorway between the dining room and kitchen have been blocked. The dining room retains a cast iron chimneypiece. The stair is enclosed and the attic landing has a balustrade of stick balusters and a chamfered handrail. A small cast iron chimneypiece survives in one bedroom.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21/12/2020 to update the name.