Red Lodge Museum, Bristol

Infobox Historic building


caption= Red Lodge
name=Red Lodge Museum
latitude=51.455556
longitude=-2.599583
map_type=Bristol
location_town=Bristol
location_country=England
architect=
client=John Yonge
engineer=
construction_start_date=
completion_date=1580
date_demolished=
cost=
structural_system=
style=
size=

The Red Lodge Museum (gbmapping|ST582731) is a historic building in Bristol, England.

It is open to the public and run by Bristol City Council Museums service.

History

It was built in 1580 for John Yonge as a lodge for a Great House, which once stood on the site of the present Colston Hall. It was subsequently added to in Georgian times. It was altered around 1730, and restored in the early 20th century by CFW Dening. It is a grade I listed building. [cite web | title=Red Lodge and attached rubble walls and entrance steps | work=Images of England | url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?id=380113 | accessdate=2007-03-10]

James Cowles Prichard wrote The Natural History of Man whilst living at The Red Lodge from 1827.

It has had several uses in its past, including the country's first girls' reform school. [cite web |url=http://www.aboutbritain.com/RedLodgeBristol.htm |title= Bristol's Red Lodge |accessdate=2007-03-11 |format= |work=About Britain.com ] This was set up in 1854 by Mary Carpenter, with the financial help of the poet Lord Byron's widow, [cite web |url=http://www.bristol-link.co.uk/history/red-lodge.htm |title= The Red Lodge and Savages Wigwam |accessdate=2007-03-10 |format= |work=Bristol Link ] who bought the Red Lodge in 1854. [cite web |url=http://www.timetravel-britain.com/06/March/lodge.shtml |title= Bristol's Red Lodge and Its Elizabethan Knot Garden |accessdate=2007-03-10 |format= |work=Time Travel Britain ]

The site is also the home of the Bristol Savages, who met in a barn-like wigwam, by C.F.W. Dening c.1920a. The Bristol Savages were a society of artists whose history dates back to the late Victorian era, when the concept of the "noble savage" was seen as something to aspire to, the Native American culture still plays a large part in its traditions. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/goingout/2004/museums/redlodge/redlodge.shtml |title= The Red Lodge |accessdate=2007-03-11 |format= |work=BBC Bristol Going out ]

Rooms

The seven rooms tell the history of the house. The Tudor period is represented by the Great and Small Oak rooms and a bedroom. The print room, parlour and reception room are from the Georgian era, and the Exhibition Room contains a small display on the Red Lodge Girls Reform School, dedicated to the memory of Mary Carpenter.

The New Oak Room contains a fireplace from Ashley Manor and panelling from St. Michael’s rectory nearby. [cite web |url=http://www.lookingatbuildings.org.uk/default.asp?document=3.C.4 |title= Red Lodge |accessdate=2007-03-11 |format= |work=Looking at Buildings ]

Below the Lodge, and entered by a door under the stairs, are some of the cells thought to belong to the Carmelite Friary, the house and grounds of which were bought by Bristol Corporation upon the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538.

Garden

The south-facing, walled garden is an excellent example of a re-created Elizabethan-style knot garden with herbaceous borders. The box hedges design is a replica of the pattern from the lodges bedroom ceiling. All the plants grown here could have been found in English gardens by 1630.

References

External links

* [http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Leisure-Culture/Museums-Galleries/bristols-red-lodge.en Bristol's Red Lodge]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2006/02/07/redlodge_feature.shtml The Red Lodge]