Ahead of August’s Working party, when we’ll be returning to Penpole Point, KWAG have produced a model of the long-lost Penpole Lodge, a building that remains with us only in ruin today. As with the reproduction statue described last month the model is intended to broaden understanding of the lost feature, and show what an imposing architectural statement it once was. In 2012 KWAG fully revealed and recorded the ruins with the assistance of South Gloucestershire’s county archaeologist, but the area is beginning to succumb to undergrowth once more.  

The building was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh as a belvedere and monumental landmark for Edward Southwell, and was designed to dominate the horizon in views from Kings Weston house. The building was a return commission for Vanbrugh who’d been responsible for the rebuilding of the house between 1712 and 1719. After its completion the pair looked to expand the parkland setting around the mansion and ornament it with fashionable garden structures, including Penpole Lodge.

Below: One of Sir John Vanbrugh’s proposals for penpole lodge showing the unexecuted colonnades on the shoulders of the gate

Below: one of Vanbrugh’s more robust designs for the building, circa 1724

Several drawings for the lodge exists showing variations on the design, one with a colonnaded veranda overlooking the Severn, but in the end a symmetrical tower built over an arched gate at the boundary of the private grounds was decided upon. It is dated to about 1724. Our reconstruction shows the building as-completed and recorded prior to demolition in the 1950s. We’re fortunate that students from Bristol University architecture school created a measured survey of the whole building in 1947, showing plans, sections, and key details, for it was to succumb to the wreckers in 1951 following decades of neglect, and the deprivations of wartime use by the Home Guard.

Whilst the Lodge appeared frequently in picture postcards of Penpole Point at the start of the Twentieth century these only captured the less ornamental side facing public common land. The façade facing Kings Weston house across the park was more refined and ornamental and only known to us through the 1947 drawings.  

We reported a few months ago about the Urban Buzz project and the new wildflower meadow seeded below Kings Weston house; we’re glad to say that the first year has proved a success with a large number of new native annual wildflowers having bloomed over the last couple of months. Yellow rattle last month preceded an unprecedented show of poppies over the last couple of weeks, along with many others. It’s important to note that these flowers are only the annuals, with the majority of perennial wildflowers unlikely to show unto next summer. We look forward to see the results!

It’s also been a pioneering year for the regrowth in Penpole Wood, where just three years ago there was nothing but cherry laurel. One of the advantages of re-covering areas we dealt with in 2016 is that we can appreciate quite what a difference volunteers have made. Although barren immediately after our operations areas have now exploded into new growth with many native woodland wildflowers broadening biodiversity, and offering new habitat and vitality to the woodland floor. If you can help identify some of these please let us know.

Of particular curiosity is the incredible growth of wild raspberries throughout the woodland areas. A resident told us some time ago that they recalled some that grew near the Echo, but the extent of the fruiting canes across the historic landscape is a surprise, particularly where the blight of laurel has been conquered.