Top Lodge

Top Lodge is a lodge for Prior Park, dating from around 1740, and likely designed by John Wood the Elder. It is constructed from limestone ashlar and features a double Roman tile roof. The building is a small, gabled structure with a single depth, located next to gate piers that lead to North Road.

The main front faces north and includes two oval windows above a Palladian window, which is flanked by plain mullion pilasters and a full entablature, all fitted with glazing bar sashes. The ground floor is treated as a 'rustick' or basement, showcasing three arched windows with keystones and an impost band, where the central window is wider than the outer ones. The lodge has full-height channelled pilaster quoins and a moulded eaves band. The gables are not coped and each features an ashlar chimney stack designed like a pedestal.

To the right of the main front, beneath a continuous deeply moulded plat band, is a single-storey wing that includes a glazed door and a large twelve-pane sash window. The right return is faced in rubble and has a central arched light with a broad impost band. Beyond this wing, a wall extends towards one of the gate piers, featuring an arched light with a keystone and impost. The rear, also faced in rubble, includes a small square light centered just below the eaves band.

The interior has not been inspected. This lodge shares a similar design with another lodge at the corner of Church Street at the north end of the Prior Park estate, and its distinctive architectural style would have signaled the arrival of travelers to a unique area.