Round Tower Lodge

Round Tower Lodge stands in the central reservation of the A556 road in Sandiway, Cheshire. It is a circular, two-storey sandstone building with a crenellated parapet on top. The tower was once part of a gate lodge to Vale Royal Abbey’s New Park. A Gothic-style oak door with studs and three Gothic windows face the road. Four unglazed crossloops sit above the door and windows. A short stub wall to the east once supported a single-storey room. The lodge was built in the early 19th century as an entrance to New Park. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, extensions were added to the eastern room. The tower served as the main living quarters while the first extension became the bedroom. The last occupants, Hughie Preston and his wife, lived there in the 1920s. The lodge was tenanted earlier by shepherd William Ree and his family in 1871. After the main road became a dual carriageway in the 1930s, the other lodge buildings were demolished. The tower was left stranded in the central reservation. Repairs were completed in 2002, but a car collision in 2013 damaged it severely. Local residents campaigned for its rebuilding. The council stored the original materials and reconstruction was finished in 2015.