lodge

A survey of Pickering Forest in 1619-21 noted that there were no keepers lodges within any part of the foreste, whereas in Blandsby Park there were two, the upper and lower lodge. From the late 1400s, such lodges were being put to a variety of uses. In 1483, for example, Edward Gower was granted permission to have low masses said in the house called le Loge in Beverley Park: in 1489 there was a mansion called le Loge in Sheffield Park. In c.1540, a dispute at the Court of Star Chamber had to do with such a lodge in the Forest of Galtres: Sir Thomas Curwen seyeth thatt the seid howse, wheryn the seid defendauntes have allegged a wever to dwelle, was buylded and made only for a lodge for the keper of the seid south parte of the seid foreste, for the sauegarde and mayntenaunce of the kynges dere or game there, and nott for eny wever to dwelle in. And also the seid cotage was buylded and made to kepe in the lyeme houndes of the seid keper…. The word could also be used from that early period for the workplaces of masons, herdsmen and the like. In the fabric accounts for York Minster are: 1371 Roberto de Ottelay operanti ibidem in logio per 41 sept

1399 In le loge apud Ebor. in cimiterio lxix stanaxes

1409 Item logium pro cementariis construendum. Similarly, the fabric rolls of Ripon mention the Mayson loge in 1541-2. Quite different types of lodge are found on the estates of the great abbeys: in 1366-7 Kirkstall Abbey had in Crosdale ... vnum loghe pro pastoribus, and the keeper or custos was Willelmus del Loghe. Fountains Abbey used the same word to describe specialist cattle-rearing establishments, referred to as logias as early as 1190-9. A property they owned at Nutwith Cote in Masham is described in a lease of 1495 as a graunge or loge one of more than a dozen such places. More explicitly an abbey lease of 1537 described one of these at Bouthwaite as a dare-house, loige and feahouse, a farm therefore where dairy cattle were raised. In a coal-mining context the lodge could be a temporary building at the pit mouth which might serve as a store and rest-place. A lease of 1597 granted Leonard Atkinson of Beeston libertye to erecte and builde any Lodges over the said Coalepittes for … any the servants or workemen … and for takeinge downe of the said Lodges and carryeing away of the same in as large and ample Manner as is convenient and necessary. It can be compared with ‘cabin’, ‘pit house’, and ‘shed’, used in other districts. Some keepers’ lodges had already been converted into farms by the sixteenth century. In 1584, a survey of the manor of Idle contained a reference to a parcel of ground within which there standeth a pretty Lodge, wherein sometime the keeper dwelt when deer was kept there. Others were rebuilt as country houses: 1651 a fayre howse lately built knowne by the Name of the Lodg … which house conteyneth three severall Roomes below staires and as many above with a Court before the doore. There were also two barns and a stable, diverse litle yards and a garden, all in good repair. General Bernard who was related to the Beaumonts of Whitley used the word in 1793 as the name of a grand new mansion that he had built at Colne Bridge, calling it Heaton Lodge. In the basement, the domestic staff had a kitchen, pantry, shoe-room and larder

there was also a servants’ hall and special accommodation for the butler and house-keeper. On the ground floor were a dining-room, vestibule and central staircase, with private family bedrooms in both wings, each with its own dressing room: upstairs were seven guest bedrooms. A comprehensive range of outbuildings, included a hot-house, and shops or workplaces for a butcher and blacksmith. The name Heaton Lodge was clearly intended to highlight this magnificence: the irony is that a farm called Lodge just across the river had once been the keeper’s cottage in Mr Pilkington’s deer park. 'Lodge' would become a popular name for villa residences from that period.