Woodhouse at Forest Lodge, Blyth, Nottinghamshire

Summary

Former chauffeur’s cottage and garage, built around 1936 to the designs of Robert Lowry FRIBA for Francis Egerton Pegler, now a house.

Description

Former chauffeur’s cottage and garage, built around 1936 to the designs of Robert Lowry FRIBA for Francis Egerton Pegler, now a house.

MATERIALS: clay tile roof, red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond, red brick chimneystack, and leaded casement windows.

PLAN: the house has a symmetrical butterfly plan with wings projecting at an acute angle north-east and north-west from the central core.

EXTERIOR: the one-and-half storey house has a central rectangular-plan red-brick chimneystack and steeply-sloped plain clay tile roof, with a dormer window to each of the centre of the north, south, north-east and north-west slopes, clad with hanging clay tiles. The walls of the ground floor are constructed of red brick laid in English garden wall bond, with a variety of three-light, two-light, and single-light leaded casement windows (to the living room, other rooms and former garages respectively). The house is accessed via the centre of the rear (north) elevation by a single step and timber-battened door incorporating a square light. The former chauffeur’s house retains double-leaf timber-battened garage doors on the rear elevation of the west wing, featuring cast-iron strap hinges which bear the manufacturer’s name ‘CHARLES COLLINGE LAMBETH’.

INTERIOR: not inspected. Plans of the proposed building, dated 8 July 1936, show the interior was planned to have a stair, coal store, scullery, living room, dry store, WC and pantry in the domestic part of the ground floor, flanked by a garage in each of the projecting wings (the west garage is said to retain a maintenance pit), with three bedrooms over. It appears the proposed garage in the east wing was not carried out.

History

In the early 1930s, the land and plantations south of Plantation Road were purchased by Francis Egerton Pegler (1890-1957), heir to the Northern Rubber Company in Retford and Peglers Ltd plumbing company in Doncaster. Pegler employed architect Robert Lowry to construct a residence and associated buildings at Hodsock Plantation, the new residence named Forest Lodge. Born around 1882, Lowry is recorded as having trained at the Architecture Association School of Architecture in London, working as an Assistant at the offices of Clyde Young and East and Mewes and Davis, before commencing independent practice in Richmond, Surrey. Lowry became Deputy Principal of the AA School of Architecture, and was recorded as a being a Lecturer in Greek, Roman and Renaissance architecture in 1924. He was awarded Associate membership of RIBA in 1916, and Fellow membership in 1925. His known works include: a house at 37 Bryanston Square, Marylebone, London W1 for the Hon Cecil A Campbell; a house in Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1 for the Marquis of Lansdowne; a concrete cottage 'White Steading' for F R Yerbury Esq, Amersham, Bucks (1921); a suburban house 'Queenslea' in Richmond, for W R Watkins Esq; 12 Frognal Lane, Hampstead, London, for J Marks Esq; and Forest Lodge near Blyth in Nottinghamshire, for F E Pegler Esq (1936).

Drawings of the proposed buildings at Forest Lodge by Robert Lowry FRIBA, approved by Worksop Rural District Council in 1936, record the architect’s address at that time as 16 Grafton Street, London, W1. Drawings included plans and elevations of the Gardener’s Cottage (a lodge most likely built in the late C18, now known as the Roundhouse), the Chauffeur's Cottage and Garage (now known as the Woodhouse), the Gate Lodge (now known as the Gatehouse), and Forest Lodge itself. The buildings were certainly completed by the time of an aerial photograph in May 1938.

Reasons for Listing

The Woodhouse, a former chauffeur’s cottage and garage, built around 1936 to the designs of Robert Lowry FRIBA for Francis Egerton Pegler, now a house, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its design by Robert Lowry FRIBA, a respected architect and architectural educator, who designed a number of elegant residential buildings;
* as a well-composed and attractive estate building, designed to complement its associated country house with a charming butterfly plan;
* for the high degree of survival of original architectural features, including the original roof covering, leaded windows and window furniture, doors, and plan form.

Historic interest:

* as a key building in an architect-designed private country estate of the 1930s, exemplifying a popular style of the inter-war period.

Group value:

* for the survival of this 1930s country estate, which also includes the associated country house (Forest Lodge), gate lodge (Gatehouse) and gardener’s cottage (Roundhouse), each listed at Grade II.

External Links

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