Nos 1 And 2 The Gatehouse About 50 Yards East Of Westwood House

SO 86 SE WESTWOOD CP WESTWOOD PARK

4/243 Nos 1 and 2 The Gatehouse about 50 yards east of - Westwood House 14.3.69 GV I

Gatehouse. Probably 1660-70 for Sir John Pakington as part of the major alterations to his grandfather's hunting lodge, Westwood House (qv) to convert it into the main family home, restored by Sir Reginald Blomfield early C20. Red brick in English bond with sandstone ashlar dressings and cross-gabled plain tiled roofs. Flemish inspired style. Two square lodges, linked by a sandstone archway with bold open strapwork decoration and, above, a wooden strapwork lantern with two-stage ogee cupola. Each lodge is two storeys on a chamfered plinth; square with rebated corners, and external chimmeys each side with paired, diagonally-set stone shafts. Three-light mullion and transom windows with leaded casements on both floors, beneath ornately shaped gable with kneelers and many cut finials, and with a blind oculus in the apex of each. Sandstone archway between has a dropped keystone, cast iron gates with elaborately detailed upper rail and above is a fretwork of arcades and circles incorporating the Pakington gerbes and mullets. Lantern is supported on posts with swept braces forming a round archway; the lantern is formed of open strapwork panelling and has a two-stage, fishscale-tiled, ogee cupola with cut finial. Inner sides of lodges facing drive have plain chamfered doorways set within the gates. The gatehouse forms a dramatic entrance to the house and is an important element of the overall composition helping to alleviate the abruptness with which the house rises out of the surrounding countryside. The original relation- ship was even more impressive, as shown in Kip's illustration of the estate, c1698, for the gatehouse was linked to the main pile and the two surviving garden pavilions (qv) by low walls to form a diamond-shaped forecourt, itself related to the overall planting of the park. The two westernmost pavilions and the enclosures were removed during the C18. (CL xii, 689; Lxiv, 50, 94; cxiii, 1689; cxxxiv, 738; VCH III (i); BoE).

Listing NGR: SO8762363943