Saintoft Lodge, including associated garden shed, gate piers and railings

Saintoft Lodge

A gate lodge designed in 1888 by W H Herbert Marten for Alderman Frederick Priestman of Bradford. The building is constructed of coursed quarry-faced stone block with ashlar dressings, beneath a red-tile fish-scale roof with decorative terracotta ridges and finials. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The lodge is planned as a two-bay rectangle with the entrance slightly off-centre to the west elevation. Entry is through an open porch into the southern bay, which contains an unenclosed central staircase rising to the attic. The rear (east) section comprises a kitchen and pantry set beneath a catslide roof, while the northern bay features a veranda to the west.

The architectural character is cottage-orné Arts and Crafts, expressed through asymmetric quoined walls and distinctive windows. Most windows are divided with a large lower casement beneath a row of three smaller fixed lights, all set within stone sills. The glazing is Arts and Crafts-style leaded glass with stained-glass flowering shrub motifs, except in the attic gables. Attic windows are notably absent stained glass.

The west elevation, facing the former carriage drive, is the principal façade. It comprises two bays with a projecting gable porch slightly displaced south, flanked by two small ground-floor windows—the northern one overlooking the veranda. The porch features an open depressed-arch doorway with quarry-faced voussoirs, ashlar soffit, and moulded edges terminating in chamfered stops, above a projecting plinth. The porch interior has red quarry-tiled flooring with black tile edging and is lit by a lead-glazed window to the left and an open window space to the right with a raised balustrade, large engaged vase balusters at the jambs, and two scroll brackets supporting the sill. The half-glazed timber-panelled front door displays a large central clear glass panel separated from margin glazing by glazing bars; the margin glazing is blue stained glass decorated with clear white leaves and square red and clear corner panes. The doorframe carries carved detailing and a blanked fanlight. The veranda is an open timber-frame with matching carved detailing, a catslide half-hipped roof with scalloped fascia boards, red tiled flooring decorated with twisted-rope-motif edge tiles, and partial enclosure by plain timber splat railings.

The south elevation features a canted-bay window with scalloped fascia boards and hipped fish-scale tiled roof. The attic window above sits within a depressed arch of quarry-faced voussoirs with two main lights and smaller panes filling the arched head. To its right is a later-inserted plain-glazed bathroom window. The attic window sits on a string course, with a narrower second string course above the ground-floor windows. The upper string course is set below stone corbels supporting an open-framed gable with a tie-beam decorated with four-petal florets; the roof verge carries chamfered and stopped bargeboards. A tall stone chimney rises from the junction of the main roof and the kitchen catslide. The kitchen window comprises a pair of casements with stained glass below four smaller fixed lights.

The north elevation is similar to the south, but replaces the canted bay with a central three-light ground-floor window within an ashlar surround, beneath a drip mould and four-centred relieving arch. The pantry (set back) has a small fly-screened window and two ventilation slits rather than a kitchen window.

The east (rear) elevation is largely occupied by the lean-to kitchen-pantry spanning approximately two-thirds of the width, with an off-centre five-panelled timber door and small casement window to the right. The eaves have plain bargeboards covering rafter ends. Rectangular-section stone chimney stacks with plinths, architrave, frieze, and cornice rise from each rear corner of the main roof; the right-hand stack retains original pale-yellow terracotta castellated chimney pots.

The ground floor contains a simple three-room arrangement: parlour, drawing room, and kitchen. The parlour, entered directly from the front door, contains a mid-20th-century fireplace and an open-string staircase against the north wall. The staircase is well-finished with a pair of turned balusters per step, plain timber handrail, and substantial turned and moulded newel post. Beneath the stairs, a cupboard space in tongue-and-groove panelling is accessed by a simple plank door with strap hinges. A door left of the stairs accesses the drawing room, which has a moulded plaster cornice, a late-19th-century cast-iron fireplace with marble mantelpiece and surround in the east wall, and an original wall cupboard. The kitchen is accessed from the parlour with the rear door toward the north-east corner. A north-wall door accesses the small pantry, which has shelving on the west and north walls, a fly-mesh window vent in the north wall (closed by a timber shutter on strap hinges), and a small east-wall window. The rear rooms' ceilings slope beneath the catslide roof. Throughout, the building retains original joinery including doors and skirting boards.

The attic floor is reached via a landing at the top of the stairs. A narrow passageway to the right, formed by a panelled timber screen, gives access to the master bedroom and secondary bathroom. A left-side door leads to the second bedroom. The master bedroom has an irregular plan with projections over the stairs and porch; its north wall adjacent to the stairs is formed by a panelled timber screen. The second bedroom contains a corner fireplace with a late-19th-century cast-iron surround in the north-east corner. The bathroom was formed by partitioning part of the master bedroom and contains modern fittings. All attic ceilings follow the roof slope.

Associated with the lodge are a garden shed, a wrought-iron five-bar deer-park fence with wrought-iron gate between faceted cast-iron gateposts, and a pair of low curving stone walls terminating in stone piers supporting decorative cast-iron spear railings flanking the former carriage-road gate.

The garden shed is single-storey with rectangular plan and gabled red fish-tile roof matching the lodge. The main elevation has a central plank stable door flanked by small windows with hit-and-miss panels; the remaining elevations are blank. A cast-iron flue rises from a brick plinth, venting a corner-set pot hearth within. The interior has an earth-and-stone floor and an unlined common-rafter roof.