 The Red Lodge was originally built at the top of the gardens of "ye Great House of St. Augustine's Back".The Great House was built in 1568 on the site of an old Carmelite Priory, later still the site of Colston Hall, by Sir John Young/Yonge, the descendant of a merchant family and courtier to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.The Red Lodge would have originally been used as an additional guest house and entertainment pavilion, so that the Young family could promenade their guests through their eight ornamental gardens and orchards to wine and dine them.