Ninnage Lodge and clock house, with associated walls, railings, gate piers and gates, Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire

Summary

An early C19 house, enlarged in the mid-to late C19, attached wing walls and a mid-to late C19 clock house. Associated garden walls, railings, gate piers and gates. C19, C20, and C21 alterations and additions.

Description

MATERIALS: built of brick with stone dressings. The roof is covered in slate tiles; the clock tower is roofed in alternate bands of plain and scallop-shaped clay tiles. Most of the windows are timber-framed hornless sashes; others are casements, some in double-glazed uPVC.

PLAN: two-storey, double-pile house, with narrow cellar. The rooms are arranged around a central hall that runs the full width of the house. The clock house is to the north-west.

EXTERIOR: the principal (south-west) elevation is of brick laid in English garden wall bond and comprises four bays with a raised parapet above a stone cornice. The six-over-six sash windows to each floor have stone cills and stepped voussoir heads; the window to the third bay of the ground floor has a brick flat arch lintel. To the second bay of the ground floor is a late C20 rusticated stone porch with a six-panel door with a geometric fanlight above, and flanked by pairs of columns supporting the entablature. The window above has a dropped cill. To either side of the façade are sweeping brick wing walls each with a round-arched doorway with a stone impost and keystone. The two-storey clock house is built of brick laid in Flemish bond, with a steeply pitched roof. The principal elevation of the clock tower is of two different phases of construction, divided by a stone plat band, and the ground-floor casement window appears to replace an earlier doorway. To the first floor are two pointed Gothic style stone windows with hood moulds. The clock above is set within a moulded stone surround with a dropped arch head and a hoodmould supported on corbels. A stepped wall has been built to the left of the clock house to form part of a gateway, and there is a lean-to shelter to the side (north-west) elevation.

The rear (north-east) elevation of the clock tower has an inserted casement window to the ground floor with a concrete lintel and a tall casement window to the first floor with pointed head glazing bars. Above this window is a double row of stone wedge lintels with a diamond-shaped stone above. An external wrought-iron spiral staircase gives access to the first floor. To the right, behind the wing wall, is the early C21 single-storey addition built of brick laid in stretcher bond.

The north-west elevation of the house is blind apart from an inserted casement window to the centre of each floor beneath a segmental brick head.

The rear (north-east) elevation of the house, formerly thought to be the principal elevation, has been rendered, and has a stone cornice and a raised parapet. Stone steps lead to the off-centre six-panelled door with geometric fanlight above. To the right are two windows, and to the left one window, all eight-over-eight sashes. To the first floor are three six-over-six sash windows.

To the south-east elevation is a late C20 glazed conservatory on a brick plinth. Two windows have been inserted above, beneath segmental brick heads.

INTERIOR: the entrance hall, that extends from the front (south-west) to the rear (north-east) includes a panelled archway and a mid-to late C19 open-string staircase with decorative brackets, a curtail step, wreathed handrail and turned balusters. Opposite the staircase is a fitted display cupboard with glazed doors with pointed head glazing bars. The principal reception rooms have panelled window shutters and plaster cornices. The fireplaces date from the Regency period to the C20. Throughout are six-panelled doors. The rooms to the front have quarry tile floors, and the hall and principal rooms to the rear have parquet floors.

The ground floor of the clock tower forms ancillary kitchen rooms whilst the first floor retains its clock mechanism.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the entrance gate piers to Ninnage Lodge are of stone with ball finials and the driveway is lined with coursed stone walls with brick cappings. The section of wall closer to the house is of brick with stone copings surmounted by wrought iron railings. Between the house and the front garden, and the farm building to the north-west and the clock house, are pairs of wrought iron gates.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16/11/2020

History

Ninnage Lodge, a small country estate of brick buildings, is located in Chaxhill, a hamlet of brick and stone farms in the parish of Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, with evidence for medieval and post-medieval ridge and furrow in the surrounding fields. A marriage settlement for a Mrs Young, dated 1712, related to the estate, which was then known as Hillgate, suggests that it has C18 origins. In 1820 the estate was leased to Mr Richard Legge, a Major-General of the Royal Irish Artillery, who subsequently purchased Ninnage Lodge in 1828, and is thought to have largely rebuilt the house where he lived until his death in 1834. The house and a rectangular outbuilding to the north-west is shown on the tithe map of 1839; the additional building between is no longer extant.

Legge’s widow, Caroline Asgill Legge, the daughter of Sir Charles Asgill, first baronet, and the younger sister of Sir Charles Asgill, second baronet, died at Ninnage Lodge in 1845. The estate was inherited by their son, also Charles, who in turn settled Ninnage Lodge on his daughter, Caroline, on her marriage to Thomas Goold of Newnham in 1864. It appears that the house was subsequently extended to the south-west, then the rear of the house, to create a double-pile plan. The narrower extension housed the service rooms, access to the cellar, and the principal staircase, orientated to face the entrance door to the north-east. The additional outbuildings to the rear, namely the building now known as Grooms Cottage and the former laundry, were probably also constructed at the time. The 1st edition (1884) Ordnance Survey map shows that by the late-C19 the house had been re-orientated to face south-west with a veranda to this elevation as well as wing walls and the clock house. A loggia had also been added to the rear (north-east) elevation. This map also shows the landscaped gardens surrounding the house with a driveway, paths, planting, terraces, and an orchard. Remnants of these features continue to survive.

Caroline died in 1889 and Ninnage Lodge was acquired by The Bristol and West of England Bank, who subsequently sold the estate to a private owner in 1890. By 1936, as detailed in sales particulars of this date, which describe the veranda to the principal elevation and the loggia to the rear, Ninnage Lodge was in a dilapidated condition and in need of renovation. The house was auctioned the following year in a repaired and refurbished state and it is clear that some of the internal features date from this period.

The loggia to the rear has been subsequently removed, as has the veranda to the front, and replaced with a Classical porch, which is thought to date from the late C20. In the late C20, the C19 conservatory to the south-east elevation was demolished and rebuilt. In the early C21 a lean-to behind the wing wall was demolished and replaced with a single-storey extension.

Reasons for Listing

Ninnage Lodge and clock house, with associated walls, railings, gate piers and gates is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well-composed early C19 house, that was extended in the mid-to late C19, it exhibits architectural quality in its overall design, detailing, planning and use of materials;
* for the good degree of survival, retaining many of its historic fixtures and fittings from the early C19 onwards;
* for the legibility of its historic evolution in the building fabric, and its contribution to our understanding of domestic architecture of the C19.

Historic interest:

* for its association with the Asgill Legge family and its illustration of the aggrandisement of a small country estate over the C19 to meet both the owners’ aspirations and the expectations for a country estate of this period.

Group value:

* with Grooms Cottage and the multi-functional outbuilding (Grade II) and the former laundry (Grade II), it forms an important group of associated C19 estate buildings that contribute to our understanding of the development of estate architecture in the C19.

External Links

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