Site Open
Ruston Triangular Lodge is open every weekend 11-2 until the end of October
Free Entry
Open every weekend until the end of October
Address:
Rushton, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN14 1RP
Rushton Triangular Lodge is an intriguing folly built in 1593-97 by Sir Thomas Tresham. Tresham was a staunch Roman Catholic, often fined or imprisoned for his then-illegal faith.
The lodge is a testament to Tresham’s defiant Catholicism and his obsession with quirky buildings, symbolism and numbers – particularly the number three. All Rushton Triangular Lodge’s features come in threes, symbolising the Holy Trinity.
There are three floors, trefoil windows and three sides, each 33 1/3-feet-long, with three triangular gables.
There are many coded references to Roman Catholic beliefs. Inscribed over the door is ‘Tres Testimonium Dant’ (‘there are three that bear witness’), a reference to the Trinity. It’s also a pun on Tresham’s name; his wife called him ‘Good Tres’, so the inscription could also mean ‘Tres bears witness’.
You can visit Rushton Triangular Lodge on a guided tour on selected days.
Rushton Triangular Lodge on the English Heritage Podcast
Listen to properties historian Dr Andrew Roberts and historian Dr Elizabeth Norton discuss Francis Tresham, Ruston Triangular Lodge and the Gunpowder Plot and his family home.