South Gateway To Hillington Hall With Attached Lodges, Splay Walls And Crosses

The South Gateway to Hillington Hall, built around 1830 by W.J. Donthorne, is a group value example of a formal entrance with attached lodges, splay walls, and repositioned crosses. The gateway is constructed of shell carstone with stone dressings, and its design is Gothic in style. The central archway is tall and four-centred, with continuous moulding and stone shields displaying arms on either side. Above the arch is an eight-light Gothic window with a king mullion, and the structure is topped with stepped embattled parapets. Openwork wooden and iron gates are set within the archway. Octagonal ashlar turrets flank the arch, rising above the central parapet and featuring four slit openings in each. The passage within the gateway is rib-vaulted, with stiff leaf foliage corbels supporting the ribs.

Flanking the gateway are two-bay lodge cottages, attached to the left and right. The bay adjacent to the arch is two-storied, with an embattled parapet, string courses that transition into hood mouldings above the windows, a two-light Gothic-headed window on the ground floor, and a single Gothic-headed light above. The outer bays are single-storied, featuring narrow slit windows and a straight parapet.

The splay walls terminate in large, low, square piers which are surmounted by the remains of medieval crosses. The western cross has a square base with spherical angle stops, a tall shaft, while the eastern cross has a square base and a stump of a shaft. These crosses were repositioned by Donthorne.

The rear of the gateway features a symmetrical central bay that projects forward, with stone quoins. It includes a tall, four-centred arch with an ogee-headed hood rising from crowned figure stops, a central canopied niche above the arch, and flanking blank slits. A stepped parapet tops the structure, and small, octagonal, rendered turrets are positioned at the angles above the arch. These turrets conceal chimney shafts, and the embattled parapets have been removed. The attached lodge cottages mirror the front, with the bay adjacent to the arch having a two-storied design, embattled parapet, Gothic windows, and single-story outer bays with brick quoins and a plain parapet, including a small, square blocked window. Hillington Hall, also rebuilt by Donthorne around 1824-30, was demolished around 1947.