Paper Mill Lodge at Hewell Grange, Tutnall and Cobley, Worcestershire

Summary

A lodge to Hewell Grange, built in 1876 to designs in a Tudor revival style by the architect William Penstone.

Description

A lodge to Hewell Grange, built in 1876 to designs in a Tudor revival style by the architect William Penstone.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the original building is roughly T-plan and had a freestanding outbuilding to the W. A later C20 extension now joins the two buildings. The lodge is built of red sandstone to the ground floor with timber framing above and a tile roof.

The former drive to Hewell Grange itself ran past the lodge on its E side.

DESCRIPTION

EXTERIOR: the lodge is characterised by its stone ground floor with decorative timber framing to the upper floor. The original main entrance door is on the E side under a projecting porch; the door itself is of timber with ironwork. The porch has rows of stone which support a timber upper structure, with carved and moulded sections forming a framework around the portal and a gable above with ornate bargeboards. To the left of the door, just outside the porch, is a small viewing hole allowing occupants of the lodge to watch the gates adjacent. Left of this is a four-light oriel window on carved timber corbels, with decorative leaded glazing. Above this a larger oriel projects at first floor level, with two high pairs of two-light windows also with decorative leadwork. The panels below the window have pairs of carved Tudor roses, with ornate carved timber in the upright sections between these and between the windows. The small gable above has a central 'W' with a coronet above and three Tudor roses.

To the N, there is a large gabled projection with an eight-light window at ground floor level, a three-light window in the gable above, which appears to be a modern replacement, and the date '1876' at the apex of the gable. The framing in the gable is mostly close-studded and squared with some curved braces. There is a small square window to the right of the projection and a single storey C20 extension, which is of lesser interest, projects to the W.

To the S, there is a further gable largely matching that to the N, although the ground floor window is an oriel. The C20 extension projects to the W and conceals the corner of the original building. There are two large brick chimneys on the roof of the lodge.

INTERIOR: the interior appears to be mostly modernised and retains few historic features. There are two mid-C20 fire surrounds to the ground floor.

History

Paper Mill Lodge stands at the southern end of the landscape park at Hewell Grange, a park which had been developed over a number of centuries. The land had passed to the Windsor family following the Dissolution, and in the early C18 the 2nd Earl of Plymouth had a new house built, possibly by Francis Smith of Warwick. The park around the house was laid out mainly from the mid-C18, with advice from Lancelot 'Capability' Brown and others, and in the early-C19 with advice from Humphry Repton.

Following the death of the 8th Earl without issue in 1843, the estate passed to Harriet Clive, a sister of the 6th Earl who in 1819 had married Robert Henry Clive. The barony of Windsor was revived in 1855, and Harriet assumed the additional surname of Windsor. She was succeeded in 1869 by her grandson, Robert George Windsor-Clive. Robert did not achieve his majority until 1878, and in the intervening years the estate was under the stewardship of his mother, Lady Mary Windsor-Clive.

Paper Mill Lodge was built in 1876 to the designs of the architect William Penstone, for which he was paid ten pounds in October 1875. At around the same time Lady Mary also commissioned Penstone to produce designs for a school at Halford, Shropshire, near the family's house at Oakly Park. Penstone was the son of the artist John Jewell Penstone, and was raised at Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire, where he also designed a school. He died in 1880 aged 34. The design of Paper Mill Lodge is part of an historicist revival occuring in the latter part of the C19, and the use of aTudor revival style here reflects the fashion at the time for ancillary estate buildings.

Hewell Grange was sold in 1946, following the death of the 3rd Earl of Plymouth (the title having been revived in 1905), and Paper Mill Lodge passed in to private ownership.

Reasons for Listing

Paper Mill Lodge at Hewell Grange, dating from 1876 and designed by William Penstone, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: the lodge is a good example of the use of the Tudor revival style, with good detailing;
* Date and survival: it is a relatively early example of the use of this style which survives substantially intact;
* Group value: with the Grade II* Registered Park and Garden, and the large number of listed buildings within it.

External Links

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