Whiteslea Lodge and summerhouse

Whiteslea Lodge and Summerhouse

Whiteslea Lodge is one of a distinctive group of chalets found along the waterways of the Broads. It may have been first built in the late 19th century but was remodelled or rebuilt around 1909 before extension by Edward Boardman & Sons in 1931. The lodge has an associated summerhouse.

The building is constructed of vertical shiplap boarding painted white with a thatched roof. It is set back from the main navigation off a shallow dyke and has an L-shaped, double-pile plan consisting of a principal range facing south-west over the Broad and a rear wing to the north-west, extended in the early 1930s. The large, single-storey lodge has a picturesque design characterised by gabled bays and steeply pitched roofs with two cross gables and scalloped ridges. Red brick chimney stacks rise from the west cross gable and the rear wing.

The principal south-west facing elevation is dominated by two slightly projecting gabled bays with exposed rafter feet, bargeboards with loops at the lower ends and slender finials. The overhanging gable heads are clad in narrow wooden planks divided into four panels by curved braces. From the left is a panelled door with glazed upper panels and two-light margin lights, followed by a similar door without margin lights, and the two gabled bays lit by three-light casements with a two-light casement in between. To the right of the second gabled bay is another panelled door with glazed upper panels, which would have been the main entrance opening into the former cloakroom. Following this is a two-light casement, and fixed between the two apertures is a highly decorated wooden post carved with acanthus leaves, which has been reused and is of some age. Attached to the right, south-east gable end, which is lit by a horizontal four-light window and a two-light window, is a timber viewing platform with a post and rail balustrade, shown in the 1934 Country Life article. The bargeboards on the gable ends are in the form of elongated cinquefoil arches.

The fenestration throughout consists of vertical wooden casements, mostly of two or three lights, with simple wooden sills and lintels. The rear elevation of the principal range is four window-bays wide, lit by two-light casements except for the last bay which is a three-light casement. The second and fourth bays are gabled, decorated with the same bargeboards as those on the gable end. The short rear wing, extended in the early 1930s, is clad in horizontal shiplap boarding. The gable end has plain bargeboards and wide eaves supported by two shaped brackets. At the south end of the south-east elevation is a panelled door with glazed upper panels, leading into the former scullery. The windows are a mixture of two, three and four-light casements.

The interior room configuration is the same as that shown on the Boardman plans, except for the bathroom which has been partitioned to create a shower room. Much of the original joinery and fixtures survive, notably the vertical panelling painted white on almost all internal walls, the simple wooden cornicing and picture rails, and the floorboards. Most of the original four-panelled doors with glazed upper panels remain, some with lock cases, as do the fixed shelves in the larder, the serving hatch between the kitchen and dining room, and the batten with coat hooks in the former cloakroom.

In the large sitting room is a series of four friezes in simple wooden frames painted by Roland Green on the long panels of the canted ceiling. They depict the water and marshland of Hickling Broad along with the birds, indigenous and migratory, that live there, including reeves, avocets, herons, plovers, mallards, lapwings, tufted ducks and tawny owls. On the north-east wall is a splayed fireplace opening with a timber overmantle and a large red ceramic tile hearth.

To the west of the lodge is a small timber summerhouse with a pyramidal thatched roof and raised ridge. The walls are clad in horizontal weatherboarding and reed panels, and two of them have glazed upper panels. The summerhouse was built between 1906 and 1934.