The Lodge, Loudwater

Summary

Gatekeeper’s lodge to Rayners House. Built in around 1874 and designed by the architect Arthur Vernon for Sir Philip Rose.

Reasons for Designation

The Lodge, built around 1874 to the designs of Arthur Vernon, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a well-designed and well-crafted example of an eye-catching entrance lodge;
* for its varied composition and the quality of materials and detailing;
* for the survival of the attached porch including an integrated gate pier denoting the building’s historic association with Rayners House.

Group value:
* with the Grade II-listed Rayners House and ancillary listed estate buildings, for which the Lodge was originally constructed.

History

From the late C17 until the early C20, lodges and gatehouses were built at the entrances to large country estates. Their purpose was two-fold: they provided security but also gave visitors and passers-by an impression of the house beyond the gates. While some lodges hinted at the formal architectural character of the associated houses, others were built later in a more ornate and exuberant style, particularly in the mid-C19.

The estate around Rayners House (NHLE entry 1469478, Grade II) was originally Rayners Farm and Colehatch Farm. Both farms were bought by Sir Philip Rose in 1845. Rose was born in High Wycombe and became a successful City solicitor. His partnership was responsible for the legal work on behalf of the Great Northern Railway and Rose himself invested in the company. Rose also became a friend of Benjamin Disraeli and both helped to found the Brompton Hospital for tuberculosis patients. Disraeli’s house, Hughenden Manor is close to Rayners House and Rose looked after his legal affairs from 1846. In 1874, when Disraeli became prime minister, he made Rose a baronet.

The essentially bare farmland was gradually turned into an estate with gardens and the planting of belts of trees during the latter part of the C19. The house was initially used as a summer retreat from London by the family, but it became a more conventional country estate which eventually extended to 550 acres. The first part of the house was built in 1847 with additions made in the 1850s and a substantial remodelling in 1867-1868 by David Brandon. Later additions also included a gate lodge on Church Lane, possibly to the designs of David Brandon or Arthur Vernon (NHLE entry 1469508; Grade II), and garden buildings including a gardeners’ bothy and trellis arches with a fleur-de-lis motif probably to the designs of Arthur Vernon (NHLE entry 1469509; Grade II).

In 1854, Loudwater Station, located at the bottom of Treadaway Hill, was opened as part of the Great Western Railway line to High Wycombe. It appears that the Lodge was built around 1874 along London Road as an additional entrance to the estate for visitors arriving from Loudwater Station before proceeding up the about two-mile drive to Rayners House. The historic passage of the drive from the Lodge to Rayners House can be seen on the Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1898 (1:2500). Loudwater Station was demolished in 1970.

The Lodge first appears on the OS map of 1875 (1:2500). It had a two-room plan and a porch to the front with an integrated gate pier. The building was illustrated in the Building News (see SOURCES), which gives Arthur Vernon as the architect and notes that the works were executed by the estate workmen. An extension to the rear first appears on the OS map of 1925 (1:2500). As an entrance lodge, historic images show that the attached brick gate pier was matched by one of similar design on the other side of the drive complete with a pair of iron gates (now lost). Historic images also indicate there were iron cresting and finials to the roof. In the early C21, the fenestration and roofline of the extension was altered, the porch enclosed and a detached double garage was added near to the rear of the building.

Arthur Vernon (1845-1926) was a well-known local architect who trained under EB Lamb. He designed a number of schools both in Buckinghamshire and further afield including the Grammar School at Horsham, West Sussex, 1892 (NHLE entry 1353931, Grade II). At Tylers Green, he designed a pair of school and working men’s club, 1875-1878 (unlisted) and the addition of a bell tower to the Church of St Margaret, around 1889 (NHLE entry 1125628, Grade II). In addition to his work for Rose at Rayners House, he was also Disraeli's agent to the estate at Hughenden. Around the same time as designing the Lodge, Vernon designed Wycombe Lodge for Disraeli (NHLE entry 1310655, Grade II).

Details

Gatekeeper’s lodge to Rayners House. Built around 1874 and designed by the architect Arthur Vernon for Sir Philip Rose.

MATERIALS: external walls of white Suffolk and blue brick dressings together with knapped flintwork panels; Pethers’ patent design buff bricks used for further ornamentation in the strings, arches and cornices; red clay tiles to the roofs.

PLAN: the compact building has two floors including two principal rooms to the ground floor and three rooms to the first floor in an offset ‘T’ plan; C20 extension to the rear; attached porch includes integrated gate pier.

EXTERIOR: all windows and entrances, apart from those to the early C20 extension, have cambered heads with moulded bricks in the lintels with floral motifs. A wide moulded brick fleur-de-lis banding running from stringcourse to sill level encompasses the building between floors and further decorative bands, including moulded egg and dart stringing, below the eaves.The roof is half-hipped with a central moulded chimney of four diagonal stacks.

The south entrance front, facing London Road, has a large tripartite bay window at ground floor and a two-light window above.

The east front faces the historic driveway to Rayners House. To the ground floor are four single light windows. To the first floor are two two-light dormer windows each with chevron ornament in the gables above.

The ground floor of the east front is dominated by the brick porch which sits asymmetrically on the elevation with one single light window to the left. The porch, now enclosed, includes decorative floral bricks to the lintels both to the exterior and to the interior space.

Integrated into the porch is a buttressed gate pier with stepped copings of blue bricks. To the south and east sides, the same linear pattern of three fleur-de-lis bricks to the base and one at the pinnacle is replicated. On the east side, an iron hook remains.

The north side of the lodge has a tripartite window to the ground floor and a two-light window above. To the right is the projecting rear wing with two small ground-floor windows, and then the west extension.

The west (rear) elevation has a later single-storey gabled extension to the ground floor of similar brick and flint construction. The rear wing has a two-light window to the first floor and chevron ornamentation to the gable.

INTERIOR: the iron bell pull for the gate remains adjacent to the interior entrance door as does the bell located within the primary living room. The rooms to each floor are plain but there are some four-panel doors. On the ground floor, there is a modest fireplace to the primary living room and an ornate painted fireplace to the second living room where the staircase (replaced) is located. On the first floor, two bedrooms have simple fireplaces with cast-iron register grates.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached to the south elevation is a dwarf wall with diamond-shaped openings and blue brick coping.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Williamson, E, The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (2003), 100, 406, 449
Green, M, Mansions and mud houses (2007), 27-28, 49-50
Entrance Lodges in Building News, ,Vol. , (31 December 1875), 748-750

Other
Ordnance Survey map of 1875 (1:2500)
Ordnance Survey map of 1898 (1:2500)
Ordnance Survey map of 1925 (1:2500)

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