Description

890/0/10015 BURTON ROAD
25-MAY-05 Craven Lodge

II
House. 1827, for Dr.Keal, remodelled and enlarged 1856-60 for Hon.W.G.Craven as a hunting lodge, altered 1868 for J.Coupland. Further alterations 1890's for Col.E.H.Baldock. 1922 divided into apartments for Capt.M.Wardell, who added a wing 1923-4 designed by Ernest Clarke of Melton. Used as hunting lodge and apartments until WWII and then as a special school.
Red brick with stone dressings; Welsh slate roofs mainly with prominent bracketed eaves. Many brick ridge and side stacks. Late Classical style.
Originally L-plan with main entrance block to north and west and projecting wing at south east; southernmost wing added in 1923-4. Generally, two storeys over basement; 1923-4 wing is three storeys.
North Range: 4 bays with doorway off-centre in bay second form right (west); double-hung sash windows with 6/6 panes on upper floor and single panes to ground floor; plat band between floors; entrance bay is recessed with Ionic tetrastyle portico in antis, now glazed between the columns, and balustrade parapet above; bracketed projecting cornice. Return elevations have tripartite, round-headed windows in stone surround with keystone to centre and impost bands; on the west flank is a bay window on ground floor and further south a two-storey projecting wing (dated 1895 on interior) with square bay under hipped roof to ground floor. At south west corner, in re-entrant angle between wings, a two-storey, three-bay block of paler brick with canted corners, tripartite windows to centre, eared architraves.
South East Range: north elevation of 6 bays with the outer three projecting forward; east elevation of 9 bays with change of brick type in centre; southernmost section is three storey, three/four-bay wide block of apartments erected in 1923-4, with double-hung glazing bar sash windows (3/6 panes) and later door.
South elevation: low 6-bay range with pediment off-centre to left.
INTERIOR. Large open entrance/stair hall with open-well stair and elaborate cast iron balustrade. Principal rooms on both floors of north block retain joinery (architraves, doors, shutters and surrounds), plaster ceilings and cornices, panelling and robust timber, marble and stone fire surrounds dating from throughout the second half of the C19. The wing of 1923-4 retains some of its plan form and fittings at upper floor level, including the main rooms at first floor level, likely to have been used by Edward, Prince of Wales.
HISTORY. This house was originally built as his residence for a local doctor. The Hon.W.G. Craven then converted it into 'a splendid hunting establishment'. It was bought in 1868 by J.Coupland, a business man with shipping interests in Liverpool. His extensive alterations made it into one of the finest hunting lodges in the area. He was Master of the Quorn Hunt for fourteen seasons from 1870-1 to 1883-4. In 1873 the house was bought by William Younger, an Edinburgh brewer. Col. E.H Baldock purchased in 1884 and he founded the Melton Golf and Polo Clubs. The changed world after the First World War is reflected in the fact that the house was divided into 'apartments' for letting to the hunting fraternity, but it had a another heyday when it was enlarged in 1923-4 to accommodate 'the Craven Lodge Club' that included Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) and the Duke of York (later George VI), as well as the Duke of Gloucester.

Craven Lodge is well-detailed and is a fine example of a hunting lodge which evolved over the C19 and C20, being altered and enlarged to reflect the expansion and popularity of hunting around Melton Mowbray in this period, Melton being close to the areas of four hunts, the Quorn, Belvoir, Cottesmore and Fernie. It also has considerable historic interest. These hunting lodges (cf. Sysonby and Egerton Lodges) form a significant group that are important to the townscape and history of Melton Mowbray.

J Brownlow, Melton Mowbray: Queen of the Shires, 1980, pp 193-201.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670750

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)