RIFFEL LODGE, Woolton Park, dated "1859".
Architect - unidentified.

A small house, built and used as the lodge of The Riffel rather than the Park. The front is generally unaltered, though a garage has been added on the right; at the back there are several additions, the first at the north west made before 1891, and others quite recently. Windows on the left of the front door and round the corner to the left, have pointed arches and casements - original? - the front door opening is a Tudorish arch, but in the bay the sash windows are square headed. The chimney pots are also replacements.

Today, for our first look at a High Victorian building we have, with more elaboration in less volume of building, a rich example. Stylistically the design is typical in its bold, muscular and 'original' treatment - by 'original' here we mean handling historical precedent in a cavalier manner. This building is distinctively 'High Victorian' in having these features:

1. 'Polychromatic' fish-scale tiling to the oriel window of the gable.

2. The mixing of elements (eclecticism) - the 'Sussex hip' mixed with half-timbering, and a Tudorish arch to the front door.

3.1 Half-timbered features which are boldly and vigorously scaled - contrast this with Reynolds Park Lodge of 1888 where the influence of the 'Vernacular Revival' shows in sensitiveness to precedent; and to local precedent, i.e. south Lancashire and Cheshire. At Riffel Lodge the shapes are the 'lozenge' and the 'half lozenge' - but these are overscaled; the half-timbered features of Reynolds Park are correctly scaled.

3.2 Large, emphatic bargeboards, elaborately cusped and with quatrefoil ends.

3.3 Overscaled brackets supporting the projecting jetty.

4. Chimney stacks 'punching' their way through the surface of the roof. Spandrels of front door have punched ornament.

5. The 'Sussex hip' to the dormer roof.

6. An old photograph shows there was iron cresting on the ridge.

The rock-faced masonry is a rustic feature and meant to give a rustic effect.

continued . . .