Berkeley Forest House

Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge with half-dormer attic, built 1854, on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch. Refenestrated, ----. Pitched slate roof centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof (porch), clay ridge tiles centred on rendered, ruled and lined chimney stack having stepped capping, decorative timber bargeboards to gables on timber purlins with terracotta "acorn" finials to apexes, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls. Square-headed central door opening approached by flight of three cut-granite steps with timber doorcase framing glazed timber panelled door. Round-headed window openings ("cheeks") with concealed dressings framing fixed-pane timber fittings. Square-headed window openings in round-headed recesses with cut-granite flush sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement timber casement windows replacing two-over-two timber sash windows. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of Berkeley Forest House.

A gate lodge not only contributing positively to the group and setting values of the Berkeley Forest House estate, but also clearly illustrating the continued development or "improvement" of the estate by John St. George Deane DL (1801-79) with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on an expressed porch; and the decorative timber work embellishing the roof. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a gate lodge forming part of a self-contained group alongside an adjacent gateway (see 15702937) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.