North Lodge at Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham

Summary

Lodge of 1838 to Oscott College, by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

Description

Lodge of 1838 to Oscott College, by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

MATERIALS: the lodge is built of brick under a tile roof, with stone surrounds to window and door openings.

PLAN: the public facade of the lodge faces roughly north, and it is rectangular in plan.

EXTERIOR: the external gate is contained within a deeply-moulded stone surround, flanked by buttresses on each side. The gates are of timber with ironwork. Above this there is a stringcourse and two windows each of two lights with mouchette tracery above, each with a hoodmould. Between the windows is a carved figure of the Virgin Mary which stands in an ornate niche. At the base of the niche there is a carved figure of an angel above which is the carved pedestal for the statue. There are posts rising to each side; these support a cusped hood which itself rises which carved ballflower on each side to an ornately carved finial. There are three crosses in the brickwork above.

The elevation which faces into the college grounds has one large traceried window above the carriage arch; this is flanked by the initials 'TW' in the brickwork on each side. The lower wing to the west has paired windows in square surrounds to each floor.

INTERIOR: the lodge is accessed from a door within the carriage arch. There is a plain timber stair with chamfered newel posts and some original doors. The large room over the arch has an exposed timber truss at its centre.

History

The first Oscott College opened in 1794 to accommodate a seminary for the training of priests and the education of Catholic pupils, and occupied what is now the Maryvale Institute. The college expanded in the early years of the C19 as Catholicism re-emerged into English life, and in the 1830s it was decided to build a new college. This was project was led by Thomas Walsh, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, and land for the new college was bought with money from benefactors including the Earl of Shrewsbury.

The new college was built between 1835 and 1838, principally to designs by the architect Joseph Potter of Lichfield. Potter was gradually replaced, however, by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, who had been introduced to Oscott in 1837 by the Earl of Shrewsbury, his benefactor. Pugin was to become Professor of Ecclesiastical Antiquities at the college. He oversaw the completion of the college buildings, most famously the interior of the college chapel, but also designed two lodges at the entrances to the site, originally known as the Sutton and Erdington lodges.

Both lodges are designed in the same style but with differing detail. The design for what is now the North Lodge appears of the frontispiece of Pugin's 'An apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England', at the centre of a scene showing numerous other ecclesiastical designs. Over the arch of the North Lodge is a statue of the Virgin Mary, a copy of that by Pugin which stands in the College grounds, itself a copy of a C15 original now in St Chad's Cathedral. The statue on the Lodge is said to be the first erected adjacent to a public highway in England since the Reformation.

The North Lodge was renovated in the late-C20.

Reasons for Listing

The North Lodge at Oscott College, of 1838 by AWN Pugin, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a sophisticated lodge building in the Gothic Revival style, with strong proportions and high quality detailing;
* for the quality of the carved detailing;
* for the degree of survival of the building and its principal features.

Historic interest:

* for its design by AWN Pugin, a leading architect of the Gothic Revival in England;
* as the physical construction of a building depicted on the frontispiece of Pugin's work 'An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England';
* for its association with Oscott College, and its place in the history of the Catholic church in England.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the other listed buildings at Oscott College.

External Links

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