The Rookery, Bishopdale

Description

Entrance gate to The Rookery MYD36576 (c) YDNPA, 2023

The Rookery was a grand Victorian house built around an earlier core. It was occupied by the Lodge family for over 100 years and then became a school and a Youth Hostel. The house itself was demolished in the early 1950s but remnants of the park and gardens survive. Around 1900, maps show that the house was approached by an avenue of trees through parkland called The Flatts. The parkland was also planted with ornamental clumps of trees. The house was sited on a raised platform with gardens terraced down to the parkland below. There was a conservatory on the east end of the house and to the south west of the house was a walled garden containing four glasshouses. Next to the walled garden was an orchard. The whole garden was surrounded by a wall with possibly a ha-ha to the south east so that views of the park were not restricted. In 1921 when the Lodge estate was sold, the sale particulars describe the gardens as follows: “The gardens are very sheltered and slope gently to the south being laid out in Lawns and Flower Beds and are protected by a fine selection of specimen exotic trees. There are in addition a beautiful sunken rose garden, two kitchen gardens with fruit walls, two lean-to greenhouses, orchard and small paddock”.