This photograph shows the front view of Keepers Lodge in 2026.

Keepers Lodge, sometimes known as Keepers Cottage, is located on the Stucley Affeton Estate in an ideal situated for its original purpose as a Gamekeeper’s residence.

There are no references that confirm exactly when Keepers Lodge was constructed however first National Population Census record of occupants was in 1881, which implies that the property did not exist at earlier dates. This assumption is further supported when considering the purpose of the property as illustrated in its name and the context it is set. As a Gamekeeper’s residence there would be a need for a gamekeeper and therefore an area in which Game birds were required.

Documented evidence confirms that that for centuries  prior to the 1860  Affeton Castle had fallen into disrepair and there is nothing to indicate that it was set in a location where large quantities of game birds were needed for food, either to sustain the local community, it being a sparsely populated area, nor for sport, as again, the setting is not one where there were local residents follow  the sport of shooting Game birds.

However this scenario changed in 1868 and 1869 when the then owner of Affeton Castle Sir George Stucley, saw the potential with the Castle and its near environment  and he commissioned the building’s restoration  with the sole purpose of using it as a hunting lodge or shooting box.

This work required masons on site and also the basic material requirements, mainly stone. The population Census of 1871  and 1881 confirms that masons were resident at the Castle. In 1871 Samuel White was the mason and lived in the Castle building with his wife Ellen, and in  1881 the occupiers of the Castle was William Gooding  who was also a Mason. 

 

This conclusion about the date and location of Keeper’s Lodge  is supported by a scrutiny of different maps of the area produced at different dates.

 The maps show in the close vicinity a quarry in the close locality to the Castle and the Lodge and also within the broader district another quarry at Drayford which is named in some accounts of the Castle’s restoration as the source of the stone necessary to undertake the works.

 

 

 

 

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Given the intention of Sir George Stucley was to create a shooting lodge clearly his plan went beyond the restoration of the Castle, he had to consider his business plan and the importance of creating the environment in which the realization of his vision was possible. He needed employees that could ensure the environment facilitated the activities that necessary to meet his business objectives. For such a need, he needed a Gamekeeper and a Gamekeeper need a dwelling where he was ideally situated to fulfill his duties. Therefore, there is certainty that the construction of Keeper’s Lodge was in the plan implemented to completion in 1868/1869.  It can be confidently assumed that given masons  employed to undertake the restoration of the Castle were also employed as part of that project to build Keeper’s Cottage. Evidence for the timing of its construction can be drawn from the architectural style of the building and the stone used in its construction which matches the local stone used in the restoration of the Castle.

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Confirming the Keeper’s Lodge as a Gamekeepers Residence and the evolution of its purpose.

The 10 yearly National Population Census confirms that the property remained as a residence for Gamekeeper from   to the last publicly available data in 1921, however the residents at the property in the 1939 survey identified the dwellers as Dennis Fowler, a Medical Practitioner and his wife Eileen with her occupation recorded as Unpaid Domestic Duties.

In 1956, Sir Dennis Stucley, 5th Baronet, converted the Castle into the private home for the family, which it remains today (March 2026) and to that end the Castle changed it’s function to a residence for the Stucley family and their business had developed into  estate management including farming,  and while shooting games birds continued and still exists in March 2023,

Keeper’s Lodge  no long preserved it’s previous role as a Gamekeepers dwelling. By the early 2000 the gamekeeper was known to be resident in the dwelling property at Affeton Mill, which itself was not functioning as a mill.

Keeper’s Lodge was let as a dwelling property with no direct relationship between their occupations and the role on the Affeton Estate or in the employ of the Stucley family.

As of February 2026, the latest Title Deed dated 16 February 2010 confirms the property has retained its ownership by the Stucley family.

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