Wootton Lodge

A country house built around 1600, with subsequent alterations and additions. It was likely designed by Robert Smythson for Sir Richard Fleetwood. The house is constructed of ashlar, with a nearly flat lead roof and ashlar stacks. It is a small, late Elizabethan prodigy house.

The main front features a moulded eaves cornice to a balustraded parapet. The stacks are of ashlar, with lower square sections and upper, moulded, squat circular sections topped by slim crenellated shafts. The five-bay facade includes full-height, three-sided angled bays to the left and right, and a central projecting porch bay. Basement windows are mullioned, while upper windows have ovolo-moulded mullions and transoms. The two canted bays have 2:3:2 vertical lights, while the other windows have four vertical lights; ground-floor windows have one transom, and first and second-floor windows have two transoms. Hood moulds run over all windows, acting as strings. A central round-headed entrance arch is approached by a sweeping flight of balustraded steps dating to the 18th century, flanked by paired fluted Ionic columns leading to an entablature surmounted by paired obelisks displaying Sir Richard Fleetwood's coat of arms.

The south front is three storeys high with a 1:3:1 bay arrangement, featuring a central recess flanked by arms. The right-hand arm incorporates a three-storey bow window with a moulded cornice and a balustraded parapet. The left-hand arm and central recess have plain coped parapets. Windows are mullioned and transomed with ovolo mouldings. The right-hand windows have two transoms and 3:4:3 vertical lights, the left-hand windows have one transom and four vertical lights, and the central recess windows have one transom and two vertical lights. All windows have hood moulds acting as strings.

Sir Richard Fleetwood's coat of arms displays the red hand of Ulster, indicating the house could not have been built before 1612, when James I granted baronets the right to bear it.

Wootton Lodge shares characteristics with other late 16th/early 17th century buildings associated with Robert Smythson, including half-basements containing kitchens and offices and large mullioned and transomed windows. Comparable examples include Wollaton Hall (Nottinghamshire, 1580-88) and Hardwick Hall (Yorkshire, 1590-97). The architectural style results in a building that is notably tall in relation to its width. Other analogies include Barlborough (Derbyshire, 1584-85), Heath Hall (Yorkshire, 1585), and Gawthorpe (Lancashire, circa 1600-05). Burton Agnes (Yorkshire), which shares the three-sided bay window arrangement and a bow window paired at each corner, is linked to Robert Smythson through a plan found amongst his drawings, and was built by a cousin of Sir Richard Fleetwood.