White Lodge

White Lodge

A two-storey house in the Arts and Crafts style influenced by Sir Edwin Lutyens, situated on the north-facing front with a double-depth main range and an office wing to the right. The walls are whitewashed roughcast with exposed red sandstone ashlar and tiled dressings, built on a snecked rock-faced stone plinth. The steeply-pitched tiled roof is hipped with swept and boarded eaves to the front span and wing, and gabled to the rear span. A tall ashlar stack with deep moulded cornice stands to the left of centre on the front north-facing roof slope, whilst the rear south-facing roof span has centre and left-end ashlar stacks.

The main entrance is centrally placed within dwarf rock-faced walls enclosing a patterned stone forecourt. The entrance has a segmental arch to a recessed porch in a tile surround with decorative fins radiating from the arch ring. Within the porch is a small-pane bay window and a panelled door offset to the left with bottle-glazing under the arch. Above the porch rises a central three-light gabled window with tile-hung apex. On the right side are narrow windows with tiled drip moulds, above which is a three-light stair window with a replaced central light. On the left side the roof is lower and features two hipped-roof dormers with swept eaves and two-light casements. In the lower storey are two two-light windows beneath a segmental head immediately left of the porch.

The left end wall is one-and-a-half storeys. It contains a five-light bay window to the billiard room beneath a half-hipped gablet with string course. Dormers similar to those on the front appear to the upper left and right. The rear roof span is gabled with decorative tile apex above a decorative vent, an external stack offset to the right side, and a two-light window above a conservatory. The conservatory is polygonal with a hipped roof, with a basement beneath it reached by brick steps.

The south front, facing the garden, is asymmetrical across five bays. At the centre is a tall two-storey projecting gabled bay incorporating a garden entrance and loggia with a segmental arch of ashlar in the lower storey above the rock-faced plinth. The upper-storey balcony likewise has a segmental arch and French doors. Windows throughout incorporate small-pane top-hung casements. The central bay is continuous with a bay to the left of centre, which sits beneath a separate pyramidal roof with finial. To the right of centre is a full-height bow window with a similar swept pyramidal roof. A further canted bay window stands at the right end beneath a hipped roof, featuring a small bullseye window in the upper storey.

The left west gable end has a two-storey projection of rock-faced stone offset to the right side, containing an inglenook. This projection has small bullseye windows in both storeys flanking the projecting chimney, with similar windows to the return at the end of the south front. Above, the ashlar flue runs diagonally. Single windows are placed left of the projection in each storey. The office wing is set back from the west gable end and has a round-headed doorway on the right side. The wing features two lean-to porches, the left-hand one being trellised, with a rock-faced external flue between them incorporating a window in the lower storey and terminating at an ashlar eaves stack.

Interior

The interior retains its original plan form and much of the original detailing. The porch leads into a longitudinal entrance hall with the billiard room to the left, stairs and office wing to the right. A drawing room leading to the conservatory, tapestry room and dining room are arranged en suite along the south front. The open-well Arts and Crafts staircase has tapered newels and a stair window with inter-war stained glass depicting a pastoral scene. The hall features high panelled dado. The billiard room displays finely detailed woodwork with wainscotting, an arched inglenook and a long window seat opposite. The drawing room has arched screens, a good classical chimneypiece and a ribbed plaster ceiling. The dining room contains a panelled inglenook and moulded fire surround.