Listed Building record MDO44029 - East Almer Lodge, Charborough Park, Sturminster Marshall

Lodge to Charborough Park built around 1840. The lodge comprises a tall gatehall with round-headed archways in the north and south walls and abutted symmetrically by low blocks containing living accommodation.

East Almer Lodge circa 1840, consists of a tall gatehall with great round-headed archways in the north and south walls and abutted symmetrically by low blocks containing living accomodation. The walls are stuccofaced, probably over brickwork, with stone dressings. Inset stone panels commemorate the opening of the Wimborne to Dorchester turnpike in 1841-2 and the closure of the old road through Charborough Park. <2>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 91899919) East Almer Lodge (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1, 171 (Monograph). SDO148.

‘(3) Charborough House … East Almer Lodge, in Sturminster Marshall parish, nearly 1 m. N.N.W. of the house, consists of a tall gatehall with great round-headed archways in the N. and S. walls and abutted symmetrically by low blocks containing living accommodation. It was built c. 1840, possibly not before 1842. The walls are stucco-faced, probably over brickwork, with some stone dressings; the roofs are lead-covered. The central block is square on plan and finishes, above the level of the arch heads, in a deep entablature pedimented to N. and S., the S. pediment containing the shield-of-arms of Sawbridge Erle Drax with flanking scroll-work. The exceptional depth of the frieze allows space for stone inset panels inscribed, on the N., 'This Road from Wimborne to Dorchester was projected and completed through the instrumentality of J. S. W. Sawbridge Erle Drax Esq., M.P., in the Years 1841 and 1842', on the S., 'This road [through the park] was closed by order of the Magistrates, which was appealed against by James John Farquharson Esq. at the Epiphany Quarter Sessions held at Dorchester Janry 4th 1841 and after a trial of three days the order was confirmed by the order of Twelve Honest Jurymen'. Inside, the gatehall has a flat plaster ceiling and doorways with keystones to the lodges. Each of these last has, outside, a cornice at the wall-head in continuation of the imposts of the great archways and a blocking-course; the window openings have keystones. (A.R.D.)’

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457350 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 9 2022 4:44PM