Above: A lodge near the gate of a home we stayed at in Bath
Every country estate had its own ancillary buildings- tithed cottages and the like. There would be the old lodge where the head gardener might live, then a gamekeeper's cottage, and sometimes a dower house, where the dowager countess etc would retired to upon the accession of the next in line inheriting the manor house (no young wife ought suffer sharing a house with her mother in law!).
Lodges...
Lodges...
Above: A beautiful old lodge, pity the satellite dish is conspicuous.
Below: More quaint English lodges...
Gatehouses
Gatehouses offered more than just protection of the estate from outsiders. It was another chance to awe and inspire passersby who may never get a chance to see the main dwelling up close.
Below: The pleasant English countryside just a short walk from the lodge at the beginning of the post.
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I certainly knew about the old lodge where the head gardener might live, or the family may have chosen to use it as a gamekeeper's cottage. What I didn't realise was how grand some of these tithed cottages might be. Some are so grand I would be delighted to live in a house like that today.
ReplyDeleteWhen the cottage was used as a dower house, it of course had to be lovely. And spacious. No new estate owner would want to put his old mum, a countess for 50 years or more, in a dump.
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteLodge No. 3 gets my vote. I could happily live in there, surrounded by books, flowers, antiques and music!
Bye for now
Kirk
Some of them are very lovely indeed, but the problem nowadays is that they are right next to the road and its busy vehicular traffic, however small that road may be.
ReplyDelete