The New Murrey and Blue blog

A lodge is now generally understood as a small house at an entrance to a stately home, formerly occupied by a man or woman whose job it was to open the park gates for legitimate users and exclude the – er – riff-raff. Some houses have (or had) several lodges as the house had several entrances, allowing the owner to set off in his/her desired direction without going out of their way.

A medieval lodge was rather different. It is perhaps best described as a subsidiary house. The idea was that the family could retire to it to live in a slightly more informal way, with fewer servants. This would be handy, for example, if the household was temporarily reduced for some reason. Equally, it was ideal if the principal wanted seclusion during illness, or just to have the equivalent of a relaxing holiday.

Another purpose might be to house hunting parties and perhaps act as a location for refreshments. It might, for example, house ladies while their men were involved in the actual hunt. Another use might be as an extra lodging when the main building was crowded.

The best example is perhaps Windsor Great Lodge, sometimes known as Beauregard. This was a locus where the sickly Henry IV secluded himself on several occasions, perhaps for peace and quiet and even what passed for privacy in those days.

Kenilworth had a similar facility known as ‘The Pleasaunce’ which was certainly used by Henry V.

Near Fotheringhay is a structure known as ‘Fotheringhay Lodge’. This is a private home, not open to the public, but from what I can gather from information on the web it has a very old core which would certainly have existed in Edmund of Langley’s time. This probably served the castle in the way that Windsor Great Lodge served Windsor Castle. Unless anyone knows better?