Saunders Court

Gateway, extant 1815, on a symmetrical plan with pair of single-bay (two-bay deep) single-storey over basement gate lodges on rectangular plans. Undergoing "restoration", 2008, to accommodate proposed alternative use. Hipped slate roofs with clay ridge tiles centred on red brick Running bond chimney stacks having stepped capping supporring ribbed terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered cut-limestone eaves (north) with cast-iron rainwater goods (remainder) on rendered red brick header bond stepped eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered rendered red brick Flemish bond walls on cut-limestone plinths on rendered bases with drag edged dragged cut-limestone "bas-relief" recessed piers to corners. Paired square-headed window openings (north) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged dragged cut-limestone surrounds centred on keystones framing remains of pivot fittings. Paired square-headed window openings (south) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged dragged cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds centred on triple keystones with fittings now boarded up. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of Saunders Court.

A gateway surviving as an interesting relic of the Saunders Court estate following the demolition (1891) of the eponymous country house (see 15703764; 15703765) with the architectural value of the composition, '[a] splendid portal on an elevated position above the public road [and] through which…an approach was meditated by [Arthur Saunders Gore (1734-1809), second Earl of Arran]' (Atkinson 1815, 521-2), confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a "Triumphal Arch"-like gateway demonstrating good quality workmanship in silver-grey limestone. A prolonged period of unoccupancy notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: however, an unfinished "restoration" may determine the ongoing architectural heritage status of a gateway making an imposing, if increasingly obscure visual statement in a sylvan street scene.