Gothic gateway to the stable court, and stair turret

1400-1800

Madingley Hall

Madingley, Cambridgeshire

Other Views

Madingley Hall, Cambridgeshire

Gotch's restored north wing

Photograph and text 2008 by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL.]

The Gothic gateway, originally to the stables, has a long history. Sir John Hyde Cotton took it from the east gateway of the Old Schools building in Cambridge, begun in 1470, when that building was demolished to allow for the rebuilding of the library in 1754. When Sir John installed it here, he made even more of a feature of it by adding Gothic pinnacles and a gable — the family's arms, and the date 1758, are carved on the back. This is an interesting example both of architectural recycling and of the mid-eighteenth-century resurgence of the Gothic. Nikolaus Pevsner notes that Pugin and Willson's Specimens of Gothic Architecture mentions "'improvements' at Madingley Hall" (435n.) and wonders if "they refer to this piece" (435n.); he himself agrees with another commentator that the gateway is "not in the Cambridge tradition" (435).

Sources

Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2nd ed. 1970.

Wright, A. P.M. and C. P. Lewis, eds. "Madingley: Manors and Other Estates." A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely. Vol. 9. Viewed 8 July 2008.

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Last modified 8 July 2008