The Draycot Lodges

B4122; 1920

With thanks to Tim Couzens. See: Hand of Fate: The History of the Longs, Wellesleys and the Draycot Estate in Wiltshire

A number of Lodges were built or refurbished around Draycot Park in the second half of the 1800s.

The extract from the 1920 Auction Catalogue shows a summary of the land and buildings included in the sale with Draycot House.

Slates Lodge

Slates Lodge (or Sleights Lodge) is on the B4122, opposite the Auction Rooms; it is now called Hunter's Lodge. It was built in 1869 and was run as a laundry in the early 1900s.

Plains Lodge

Plains Lodge is at the southern (Draycot Cerne) end of the B4122, just north of the bridge. It was built in 1889.

Scotland Lodge

Scotland Lodge is on the road from Stanton to Seagry, south of Nabal's Farm and west of Harding's Farm. It was rebuilt in 1862.

Draycot Lodge

Draycot Lodge, or Front Lodge, on the road to Sutton Benger, dates from the period 1865-1875. Lord Cowley had inherited the Estate, and cleared the old village to make way for a new entrance and driveway to the House.

Keeper's Cottage, also known as Keeper's Lodge and as Dray Cottage, was rebuilt in the second half of the 1800s. This is a Grade II Listed Building. An extract from the official Historic England listing is as follows

Gamekeeper's cottage of Draycot estate, 1858, squared rubble stone with Bridgwater tile deep-eaved roof and two rebuilt ridge stacks. 1 1/2 storeys, symmetrical front with two gables and recessed centre, also gabled, the gables with ornate Gothic barge boards, also continued on side eaves. Picturesque Gothic style with 2-light pointed windows, cusped with quatrefoil heads and hoodmoulds. Each main gable had one upper window and two below each side of door in rough tufa surround. Right gable has 1858 date plaque in apex, upper window is blank and door is blocked.

See https://historicengland.org.uk

Other Lodges / Cottages

The stables (now the Old Dairy) for Draycot Park Farm / Home Farm were also built in the late 1800s, between Slates Lodge and Plains Lodge. The pair of cottages on the west side of the B4122, opposite the stables, were built in 1903.

On French Gardens Lane, but with an address of 16 High Street, there is a thatched house known as Bell Cottage. It is a Grade II Listed Building, and is over 300 years old. In the 1920 Auction there is a reference to it sometimes being known as 'the fifth lodge'.

The four main lodges and keeper's cottage, as well as the 'Home Farm buildings', were included with Draycot House and Park as part of Lot 1 in the Draycot House Auction in 1920.

The pair of cottages on the west of the B4122 were Lot 43. Bell Cottage was Lot 83.

Plains Lodge

With thanks to Nesta Heath; see her Life and Herbing in Sutton Benger; Memories of a Wiltshire Village. See also Tim Couzens: Hand of Fate: The History of the Longs, Wellesleys and the Draycot Estate in Wiltshire.

A number of Lodges were built or refurbished around Draycot Park in the 1800s.

Plains Lodge is on the B4122, the road from the Draycot crossroads to the M4; it is on the right after the bridge. It was built around 1889, at a time when Draycot Park was being remodelled and several new houses were being built in and around Draycot Cerne.

Nesta Heath remembered life in Draycot Cerne and Sutton Benger as a child in the 1920s / 1930s. ‘Mr Archer lived (at Plains Lodge) with his wife and son, Freddie.’ (Nesta Heath, Life and Herbing, p. 18).

Plain and Lawn; 1839

The 1839 Tithe map shows that there was one large field in the parkland between the road and Draycot House, north of the brook. The number '4' identifies that this area was known as 'Plain including Lawn' - giving its name to Plains Lodge, which was built close to the trees at number '33'.

Slates / Sleights Lodge

A number of Lodges were built or refurbished around Draycot Park in the 1800s.

Slates (or Sleights) Lodge is on the B4122, the road from the Draycot crossroads to the M4; it is on the right opposite the Auction Rooms. It was built in 1869, and is now known as Hunter’s Lodge Farm.

Nesta Heath remembered life in Draycot Cerne and Sutton Benger as a child in the 1920s / 1930s. *‘… further up the road [from Plains Lodge] was Sleights Lodge where my uncle and aunty, Mr and Mrs Ted Teagle, ran the laundry. I remember there used to be a pump in the year which had to be primed every time they wanted to draw water, so a jug always had to stand on the top, full up, or else you didn’t have any at all.

‘Sleight Cottages stood on the left hand side of the road (Mill Hill), and here another uncle and aunt of mine lived, Mr and Mrs Fred Brind. He was the estate carpenter. I remember they kept several ferrets in hutches in the back garden, and I was always told that they would bite my finger off if I put it through the wire.’* (Nesta Heath, Life and Herbing, p. 18).

The 1839 Tithe map shows that the large field (numbered 29) to the east of the Stanton Road was called 'Sheep Sleight'. In old Wiltshire dialect, according to the 1893 Glossary of Word used in the County of Wiltshire, the verb 'to Sleight, or to Slay' meant 'To pasture sheep on the downs.' The noun 'Sheep-sleight' therefore meant 'a sheep-down' or 'a pasture good for sheep'. This word was especially common in north west Wiltshire. 1839 Sheep Sleight

So Nesta Heath's use of 'Sleight' rather than 'Slate' was the correct spelling originally.

Note that the various circles numbered '30' are plantations of trees; Draycot Park was much more heavily wooded in the early 1800s than it is today.

The Stables / Old Dairy

The Home Farm was moved away from the House in the 1880s, and new farm buildings were built between Plains Lodge and Slates Lodge.

The extract from the 1920 Auction Catalogue shows jiust a fraction of the land and buildings included with Home Farm.

The Stables; 1920