Tour of Lotherton Hall - The Approach
Visitors to Lotherton Hall today still pass the pretty Lodge Cottage of 1906 as they sweep up the tree-lined drive towards the main car park. Historically guests would have travelled in a gentle curve to the east of the stable block before passing through the grand stone gate piers which form the entrance to the garden.
From this direction visitors are able to catch their first glimpse of the house with its irregular roofline and picturesque facade. Despite its covering of rough cast and uniform limestone window dressings it is clear that the Hall is the product of many additions and subtractions.
The oldest part can be seen in the shallow bow and in the two windows to the right of it. This was local landowner Lamplugh Raper's modest Georgian villa, purchased and extended by Richard Oliver Gascoigne and his successors.
The bay-windowed block to the East was added by Colonel Gascoigne's architect, J. Osborne Smith, during the 1890s and housed the Colonel's dining room. In 1903 the Colonel extended the house to the west to form a grand entrance hall and drawing room which project into the present rose garden. To the east is the new Dining Room wing added to the house as late as 1931 which continues the theme of asymmetry whilst balancing the Drawing Room bay.