New Lodge

New Lodge

Large country house in parkland, now converted to offices. Built around 1857 by T Talbot-Bury in Jacobean style for the Belgian Van de Weyer family. The building is constructed of stock brick with Bath stone dressings, featuring steeply pitched slate roofs with coped gables. It follows a rectangular plan with a courtyard and former service wing on the east side. The structure rises to two storeys with cellars and attics, displaying many gables on all fronts and a water tower on the south-east corner.

The exterior is distinguished by several chimneys with clustered shafts and spiral ornament, with offset and moulded heads. Windows throughout have mullions and transoms on the ground and first floors, with casement windows in the attic floors, all featuring hood moulds. A weathered plinth runs around the base, with moulded string courses at the first and second floors. The building is topped by a parapet with stone coping and pierced parapets over bay windows. Stone quoins mark the corners.

The entrance front facing north is symmetrical and comprises five bays. The two outer bays contain two-storey square bay windows with four-light windows on the ground and first floors, single-light returns, and two-light casements in attic gables set back. The centre bay projects forward as an enclosed porch with a three-light window at first-floor level, flanked by single-light returns. The entrance itself features a four-centred arched head of three orders, behind which stands a screen with engaged colonnettes and a square head with foliated spandrels. Access is via a flight of six stone steps with stone-carved and foliated balustrade. The arms of the Van de Weyer family form the centrepiece of the parapet above. The bays flanking the centre bay each contain a two-light window within a gabled dormer, a two-light window to the first floor, and a three-light window on the ground floor.

The west front is similar in character, featuring a large ornate bay window in the centre bay and a large stone finial topped by a griffin and weathervane on the centre gable. The east front, serving the former service wing, is plain in treatment. The water tower displays a castellated and offset top with arcading and windows below, surmounted by a large chimney of six clustered shafts.

The interior retains all original features of fine quality. The entrance hall contains an ornate glazed entrance screen with a pair of doors, panelled with four-lights and single lights on each side, all featuring trefoiled cusped and traceried heads. An ornately carved cornice borders a ribbed ceiling enriched with floral and fruit bosses. Doorways throughout have heavy moulded architraves and four-panelled doors with line-fold panelling and elaborate cornices. A large fireplace with four-centred arch opening is flanked by engaged columns with foliated spandrels.

The principal rooms on either side of the hall feature elaborate decorated plaster ceilings enriched with leaf and floral ornament, accompanied by enriched cornices and window shutters carved on the inside face. The former drawing room retains a marble fireplace with cusping and decorated colonnettes, a mantelpiece with floral decoration, and a large over-mirror with delicately carved borders and head.

The staircase hall contains an open-well stair with turned balusters, moulded handrail, and elaborately carved newels. The bottom newels are surmounted by griffins. Linen-fold dado panelling extends up the stairs, with stained glass on the rear wall and right-hand wall. An enriched plaster ceiling with drop finials completes the staircase hall.