Letheringham Lodge

Letheringham Lodge is a house, formerly a hunting lodge, dating from the 16th century with later additions and alterations. It is constructed with timber framing, colourwashed render, and a plain tile roof. The building is two storeys with an attic.

The south front features stucco to the ground floor, grooved in imitation of ashlar. Massive wooden corner posts at the far right and left are jowled at their tops, which have miniature arcades to their upper bodies and fleurons. A central double doorway with 20th-century plank doors is positioned between them. To the left of this is a three-light 19th-century casement. The jettied first floor has lateral two-light casements. A hipped roof rises above to the apex, where a massive chimney stack is located.

The right-hand side has a canted 19th-century bay window with three central lights and two to each angle at ground floor level on the left, followed by a three-light casement. A further corner post similar to those on the south front stands to the right of this. Immediately to the right is an extension with brick walling to the ground floor and a non-jettied first floor. This section has a small basement area with a three-light cambered-headed window, and at ground floor level two 19th-century three-light casements. The first floor level has three two-light casements across the whole front. A two-light flat-roofed 20th-century dormer sits at the attic level on the left. At the ridge on the far right is a massive chimney stack supporting four diamond-section flues with broach bases and banded upper bodies.

The left-hand side features a projecting staircase tower-wing. Slightly to the right of centre, at the right of which is the earliest portion with its jettied first floor. The staircase tower has a cross window to the ground floor at left and a four-light window at mezzanine level between the ground and first floors, with a further three-light window above. At right are two-light ground and first floor windows, both of early 19th-century date. To the left of the staircase tower is a lean-to with a plank door and three-light casement, and a further 20th-century lean-to to the left of that. Behind and to the left is a ground floor window of four lights above a deep brick plinth, and at first floor level are three two-light windows of varying size.

The north face (rear) is a brick gable end with a two-light basement window in walling rising from the moat. Blank walling appears above, except to the gable which has later two-light windows, one of which is partially blocked. Put-log holes are visible throughout this front in the brickwork, now partially filled with loose bricks. A setback occurs between the ground and first floor, with kneelers at either side of the gable. A massive chimney stack rises to the apex.

Internally, the kitchen outshut contains a moulded lintel originally from an outside door, bearing the date 1610 and the initials E.W., with the name J. Blandfield to the right, which may be a later addition. The drawing room has late 16th-century richly-moulded ceiling beams with roll and cavetto mouldings continuing as a cornice around the room. The sitting room has a plain ceiling above which are two separate decorated ceilings, now obscured. The 17th-century staircase has turned balusters and moulded handrail, arranged as open-well to the lower body and close-stringed above, consisting of five flights. The first floor has close-studded walls and richly-moulded lengthy dragon beams to three of the rooms, connected to the corner posts by short arched braces. The cross-axial gallery features one four-centred archway and the springing of a further similar archway. At the centre of the northern wall is a blocked four-light window with a very richly moulded frame, partially altered to accommodate a doorway through to the extension. A winder staircase serves the rear wing. The attic rooms have slender rafters with staggered purlins, though this masks an earlier roof visible in the loft space above, which has more substantial timber but does not appear to date earlier than the late 17th century.