A lodge of a similar design to ‘Springthorpe Cottage’ once stood adjacent to the Golden Gates.
Residential use
It was occupied by the gatekeeper, who together with his wife and family was allowed to live there rent free with the proviso that they were available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to deal with any visitors and guests and also to open and close the gates for carriages.
A very much different and larger style lodge was situated where the long coach road joined the main road from Derby to London and this was appropriately known as ‘London Road lodge’.
The resident’s duties there were to open the large studded gates for vehicles and horses and the smaller gate for pedestrians and they too had to be available potentially 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
Gothic style
Although now a shell of its former self (all that remains being the principal outer walls), the ‘London Road lodge’ echoes the gothic style of the castle and initially was split into 2 separate buildings, one either side of the gates.
According to an eye witness account of one of the gatekeeper’s family, the left hand side comprised of “one large room, one long thin bedroom, scullery and larder used for day to day living and the right hand side for washing clothes and storage.”