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Summary

Lodge built at the western entrance to the drive to Stedcombe House in 1898. Single storey building, constructed in red brick with Beer Stone quoins and Bath Stone copings and finials under a slate-tile pyramidal roof.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1458834: Gate lodge, gate piers and boundary wall to Stedcombe House, Axmouth

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• LODGE (Built, XIX - 1898 AD to 1898 AD)

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

A lodge is labelled and illustrated.

Pink, F., 2014-2015, South Devon Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Desk-Based Assessment (Interpretation). SDV357736.

A lodge is first labelled at the western end of the drive to Stedcombe House, adjacent to the road, on the Second Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map. The lodge is also present on the Ordnance Survey Master Map where it is labelled as 'Stedcombe Lodge.'

Ordnance Survey, 2015, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV357601.

'Stedcombe Lodge' is labelled and illustrated.

Historic England, 2018, Gate Lodge to Stedcombe House, and Gate Piers and Boundary Wall, near Axmouth, Devon (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV361667.

Notification that Historic England have completed their initial assessment of the building in order to consider if it has special architectural or historic interest.
History
Stedcombe House was built in around 1697 by Richard Hallett (d.1747), whose family had owned the estate since 1691. They were a merchant family who traded in Barbados sugar and rum to fund the purchase of the estate and construction of the house. The plan is an exact square with five window bays on each elevation, built of red brick with Beer and Portland stone dressings. A slate hipped roof surrounds a central, brick, square belvedere incorporating the chimney stacks. The Hallett family owned Stedcombe House and its estate until 1890, when it
was bought by Samuel Sanders Stephens (d.1910). High Sherriff for Devon and Justice of the Peace and a member of the County Council, Stephens also had philanthropic inclinations, having paid for the removal in perpetuity of the public toll on Axmouth bridge in 1907.
Stephens had the lodge built at the end of the western entrance drive to the house in 1898. The lodge faces south, and was originally roughly square in plan, with a small walled yard to the north. Up to this date both the house and Stedcombe Farm (to the south of the main house) were accessed from the same entrance off the present-day B3172 with the principal drive curving to the north and that to the farm leading directly to the east. It is likely that
Stephens also rebuilt the main drive with a new drainage system, with the lodge and its gate piers creating a welcoming entrance to the main house. At some point in the mid-C20 the main road was straightened at the lodge’s location on a bend, and two separate access roads created to the house and farm. This then placed the lodge back from the road. The Stephens family sold the estate in 1960, when it was broken up, and in 1963 Stedcombe House was vacated and abandoned. By the 1970s the house was in a dilapidated state and the owners were forced to sell it in 1987. It is unknown whether the house and lodge remained in the same ownership between 1960 and 1987. Passing to the current owners that year, they restored the main house and made alterations to the lodge including the conversion of a small, walled back yard into a third bedroom by flat roofing the yard; and insertion of a fourth dormer window on the northern roof pitch. Iron railings to the south-west boundary wall were removed in the Second World War.
Details
Gate lodge to Stedcombe House, built in 1898 for Samuel Sanders Stephens by an unknown architect. Red brick with Beer Stone quoins and Bath Stone copings and finials, under a slate-tile pyramidal roof with a bracketed eaves cornice. The lodge is single-storey with an attic storey and is rectangular in plan. Central to the apex of the roof is a brick, square, chimney stack with a moulded brick cap. Each roof slope has a single semi-circular pedimented dormer window, and three of the four windows have stone or composite mouldings in the tympana of their pediments; that to the north was left plain when it was added in 1988-90. At the east side of the south elevation is a pitched-roof single-storey porch supported on timber Doric columns on low red-brick walls, forming a pedimented entrance with stone steps and a tiled landing. The pediment incorporates a stone tympanum with the
monogram SSS and the date 1898 below. The south and west elevation each has a canted timber bay window supported on shaped cill brackets. Other windows are timber casements, some with crown glass, within segmental rubbed-brick arches. At the rear (north) of the lodge is a flat-roofed structure, created out of a walled yard.
Internally, the lodge is entered into a small stair hallway, with a sitting room to its east across the south front, a dining room to the north-west, and a kitchen and pantry to the north east. To the north are a bedroom off a small lobby, and a bathroom and utility room within a C20 conversion. In the attic the two bedrooms fill the spaces to the north and south of the chimney. A small bathroom lies to the west. The single-flight staircase is timber with moulded treads. The principal rooms and original bedrooms have a fireplace with a simply-moulded surround and a cast-iron grate and inner surround (that to the dining room is not contemporary to the lodge). The fire surround to the kitchen is plain, and the fireplace would have contained a small range. The living room and dining room have timber double-height cupboards recessed into the chimney breast, and each room has a timber four-panelled moulded door within a moulded architrave with brass door furniture. Floors are timber-sawn boards, with a quarry-tile floor in the kitchen.
SUBSIDARY FEATURES
A pair of square, brick and Beer Stone gate piers flanks the driveway to Stedcombe House, each with a Bath Stone plinth and ball finial. A red-brick wall with Bath stone coping runs around the south-west boundary of the lodge, curved down from a pier at its northern point to create a low, curved wall running to the porch steps. Inset within the wall is a cast-iron Ordnance Survey Benchmark.

Historic England, 2018, Gate lodge to Stedcombe House, and gate piers and boundary wall: Notification of Designation (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV361786.

The gate lodge to Stedcombe House, its gate piers and boundary wall are recommended for listing at Grade II.

The gate lodge built in 1898 serves Stedcomebe House (1697), which is located approximatly 240 metres to the east along the entrance drive and is Grade I listed building.

The gate lodge, the gate piers and boundary wall are recommentned for listing at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
For the influence of WE Nesfield on the unknown architect to produce a 19th century building of its time, whilst subtly replicating the form and materials of the 17th century Stedcombe House; for the survival of historic features, including good-quality joinery and the quality of the late 20th century interventions.

As part of the evolution of the Stedcombe Estate into the 19th century; As an expression of Samual Sanders Stephens' residence near Axmouth, where he had philanthropic links.

Historic England, 2018, The Lodge, Stedcombe House, Near Axmouth, Devon, EX12 4BJ (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV361472.

Notification that Historic England have received an application to add The Lodge to the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV325644	Cartographic: Ordnance Survey. 1904 - 1906. Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map. Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map. Map (Digital).
SDV357601	Cartographic: Ordnance Survey. 2015. MasterMap. Ordnance Survey Digital Mapping. Digital. [Mapped feature: #68433 ]
SDV357736	Interpretation: Pink, F.. 2014-2015. South Devon Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Desk-Based Assessment. AC Archaeology Report. Digital.
	Linked documents:1
SDV361472	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: Historic England. 2018. The Lodge, Stedcombe House, Near Axmouth, Devon, EX12 4BJ. Notification of Application to Add Building to List. Digital.
SDV361667	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: Historic England. 2018. Gate Lodge to Stedcombe House, and Gate Piers and Boundary Wall, near Axmouth, Devon. Notification of Completion of Assessment. Digital.
SDV361786	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: Historic England. 2018. Gate lodge to Stedcombe House, and gate piers and boundary wall: Notification of Designation. Additions and Amendments to Checklist. Digital.

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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