Monument record MDO7387 - North Lodges of Lulworth Castle, Coombe Keynes

Two lodges flanking one of the main gateways to Lulworth Park. The buildings are two-storey and triangular in plan with rounded turrets at the corners. The walls are faced with ashlar. The date 1785 appears on the south side.

(Centred SY 850828) The park walls surrounding Lulworth Castle were built circa 1790 when the formal gardens and part of East Lulworth village (SY 88 SE 36) were destroyed in the formation of Lulworth Park. A number of lodges and towers are associated with the park wall.

SY 84848335. North Lodges, consist of a pair of triangular-shaped lodges of two storeys with rounded corner turrets flanking a main gateway and dated 1785. The park walls with embattled parapets continue east and west from the lodges a distance of 13yards to round towers, 6ft diameter x 15ft high, then curve in a quarter circle to two more similar towers; a third tower on each side stands 60 yards away.

SY 84288301. Clare Towers, a two-centred gateway flanked by round towers and probably contemporary with the park wall. (c.1790).

SY 85768280. Wareham Gate Lodge, a rectangular two storey building with embattled parapet and central archway dating from the 17th century although moved here in 1808. <1>

SY 848833. Lulworth Castle North Lodges and Park Walls. Scheduled. <3>

The brick walls enclosing Lulworth Park are generally in a good state of preservation and entire except for a stretch between North Lodges and Clare Towers SY 84848335. The North Lodges and adjoining round towers are as described but derelict.

SY 84278301. Clare Towers gateway is ruinous and ivy-covered.

SY 85768280. Wareham Gate Lodge is inhabited and in good preservation, (see illustration card). <4>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1, 149 (Monograph). SDO148.

‘North Lodges (848833), in Coombe Keynes parish but described here with the castle, comprises two lodges of two storeys flanking a main gateway with piers and two narrow side gateways in arched openings, all ashlar faced (Plate 101). The gate-piers contain round-headed niches and oval panels framing, on the S., the date (of building) 1785, and on the N. two shields-of-arms, of Weld quartering Sherborne, Heveningham, Simeon, and of Weld impaling Stanley; couched lions crown the piers. The short connecting walls between the piers and the lodges contain segmental-headed archways with plain imposts and keystones. The lodges are triangular on plan with rounded turrets at the corners; the fronts have a moulded string carried round at first-floor level and embattled parapets. The entrance-doorways are on the N. and have moulded four-centred heads; the windows in the flat wall-faces are of two lights with elliptical openings in square moulded heads, and the turrets contain loop lights, trefoiled at head and foot. The two lead rain-water pipes are original.
The park walls are of carstone rubble patched with brick, from 5 ft. to 10 ft. high and with embattled parapets. They continue straight E. and W. from the lodges a distance of 13 yds. to round towers of similar build, 6 ft. in diameter and some 15 ft. high, then curve in a quarter circle to two more similar towers; a third tower on each side stands 60 yds. away.’

<2> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset (Monograph). SWX1290.

<3> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 82 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 06-JUL-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455503 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:53PM