Historic Architecture in Ossett - Part 2

 

A detail of the west door surround at Holy Trinity church

Including the time when I had to shelter from the very heavy rain, I spent less than 20 minutes looking at the historic architecture around Market Place in Ossett and then went to find the first of the 4 buildings that were on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

The former rag warhouse on Wesley Street

The former rag warehouse of the premises of Edward Clay and Son, who manufactured shoddy and mungo and still produce mainly felt, was built in the early to mid C19 but I just took a single photograph and headed along Ventnor Way back towards the town centre. 

 

The commemorative plaque on Ventnor Way

 

In the boundary wall of the King’s Way Methodist Church is a limestone plaque, which commemorates the end of the Napoleonic Wars and was was originally set in the Church of England day and Sunday school, which was demolished to make way for Ventnor Way. 

 

A view of Market Place

 

After taking a photo of the K6 telephone kiosk on Dale Street, I had another quick look at Market Place and the area around the town hall, where many of the Victorian buildings to the north of it – including mills and rag warehouses – were demolished and the area redeveloped in the second half of the C20 with various nondescript buildings. 

 

The corner of Town End and New Street

Making my way to Church Street, I immediately noticed the United Methodist Free Church (1857) on Dale Street, which has been converted into flats. As with various buildings that I had seen in Ossett and in Horbury, I thought that this would be listed and it does make me wonder what criteria Historic England and ultimately the Secretary of State apply when selecting listed buildings. 

 

The United Methodist Free Church

 

Continuing along Church Street, the Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, which first appears on the 1894 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, looks typical of the board schools that were built following the Elementary Education Act of 1870. 

 

The Holy Trinity C of E Primary School

 

I just took a few general record photos, which show that it is built in local sandstone that is probably quarried from the Horbury Rock although, as mentioned in my last post, the Thornhill Rock was quarried not far away. 

 

Northfield Mill

 

The former Northfield Mill (1888), now apartments, is built with a similar sandstone but again I only took a couple of photos before continuing to the Grade II* Listed Holy Trinity church (1865) by W.H. Crossland, a Huddersfield born architect who was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. 

 

Holy Trinity church

 

The church was not open and I spent most of my time looking around the churchyard and trying to get the very tall spire in my camera shots from a distance and, except for a quick look at the ornate surrounds to the west door, I didn’t get close enough to have a good look at the stonework. 

 

The west door of Holy Trinity church

 

My next stop was the Grade II Listed mid C19 Springstone House, which is built with coursed local sandstone walling, ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof. I just took a single photograph and made my way along Dewsbury Road, where there are a couple of old brick built mills of no great architectural merit. 

 

Springstone House

 

Turning into Dale Street, I headed back towards the centre of Ossett and passed several sandstone built houses, which included modest detached villas and short terraces. The 1854 OS map marks several rows of tenters, used for stretching and drying cloth, at the back of the buildings at the southern end of the road, which shows that commercial and residential areas were not yet separated. 

 

Houses on Dale Street

 

Returning to Market Place, I carried on down Bank Street to Illingworth Street, where some of the Victorian buildings still remain, but a car park occupies a space where some have been demolished. These include the Temperance Hall (1888), which is now the New Spring Church and a rag warehouse, used as a children’s play centre and a venue for learning martial arts. 

 

The entrance to the Temperance Hall

 

Turning onto Prospect Road and starting off on my walk back to Horbury, I quickly stopped to look at section of rock-faced walling, where the lowest courses have weathered to reveal a body of grey sandstone, which contrasts strongly to the orange coloured weathered stone. 

 

Weathered sandstone to walling on Prospect Road

 

This looks like another use of the Horbury Rock, as also seen at the former Mount Zion Primitive Methodist Church (1863) on Queen Street, which has well squared and coursed walling with a broached finish and ashlar dressings. 

 

The former Mount Zion Primitive Methodist Church

 

Carrying on down the hill to The Green, I stopped briefly to look at the blue plaque dedicated to the philosopher Hannah Pickard, which is attached to the large detached house on the corner of Southdale Road, Green Mount. 

 

The blue plaque on Green Mount

 

Further down the hill is the Grade II Listed Christ Church, which was not part of my Photo Challenge. Looking at it it from a distance, it didn't appear to have any features and I just took a single photo from a distance and continued down to Sowood Road. 

 

Christ Church

 

Sowood Farmhouse, which has C19 alterations that obscure its actual date of 1689, was the last building on my Photo Challenge. With the farmhouse being set at right angles to road and the front elevation obscured by a high garden hedge, I just took the best photo that I could and then headed off to find the footpath that would take me back to Horbury.

 

The front elevation of Sowood Farmhouse

 

Historic Architecture in Ossett - Part 1

 

A detail of the former Yorkshire Penny Bank

After spending nearly two hours in Horbury, to look at the Church of St. Peter and St. Leonard and some of its historic architecture, I got on the No. 126 bus to Ossett and it immediately began to rain and, 10 minutes later when I alighted at Prospect Road, it was falling very heavily. 

 

Listed buildings in Ossett town centre

Just before this, from the top deck of the bus I had noted a few Victorian buildings on Station Road that have architectural features usually associated with listed buildings but, having prepared a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, I discovered that there are 12 listed buildings in the Ossett Ward and only 4 in the town centre.

 

The former Yorkshire Penny Bank

 

On the north side of Station Road, on the corner with Prospect Road, the former Yorkshire Penny Bank (1893) is built with muddy grey/brown rock-faced walling stone and massive sandstone for the door surround and dressings, which has a very similar colour and pattern of iron staining. 

 

A high level detail on the former Yorkshire Penny Bank

Looking closely at the intricately carved details to the dressings, at ground floor level and on the pediment to the splay, the sandstone is still in a very good condition after more than 125 years and, in Sheffield, I would normally associate this durability with the medium grained sandstones from the Millstone Grit Group. 

 

Details of the former Yorkshire Penny Bank

 

Ossett is set on an unnamed sandstone in the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation, (PMCMF) but the Storrs Hill Quarry and Horbury Quarry in the Horbury Rock are not far away. The geological memoir considers it to be quite a soft sandstone and, as I had seen in the vernacular buildings of Horbury it is often not very durable and, for substantial architect designed buildings, Crosland Hill stone and other best quality West Yorkshire sandstones are used for dressings. 

 

Quarries in the vicinity of Ossett

 

The Building Stones of England Database map explorer shows that Ossett is not far away from the Thornhill Rock, which is one of the better quality sandstones that was once widely quarried in the Wakefield district and was used to build Morley Town Hall. 

 

The Liberal Club

Opposite the Yorkshire Penny Bank building on Station Road is the Liberal Club (1893), where the rock-faced walling and the ground floor ashlar have a similar appearance and the intricate carving is again in very good condition.

 

Details of the Liberal Club

Before continuing along Station Road towards Market Place, I took a few photos of a terrace of shops and houses and a detached house on the south side of Prospect Road, where the walling is composed of muddy grey/brown rock-faced sandstone, with more massive iron stained dressings. These modest buildings first appear on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map and are presumably built out of local PMCMF sandstone. 

 

Buildings on Station Road

 

With the rain still falling heavily, it was as much as I could do to take photographs with one hand while holding my umbrella with the other, so I did not look closely at the sandstone at any of the above buildings or the Mechanics Institute and Technical School (1889) by W. A. Kendall, which was later used as the library. 

 

The Mechanics Institute and library

 

Recorded in Domesday Book as Osleset, Ossett was a predominantly agricultural community until the Industrial Revolution when coal mining became very important and, like nearby Dewsbury, it was at the heart of the shoddy and mungo industry - as part of the Heavy Woollen District.

 

The centre of Ossett on the 1893 Ordnance Survey map

At the time the 1893 edition of the Ordnance Survey was published, Ossett had become quite a substantial town and the buildings that I had seen to date reflected its prosperity and, as with very many other West Yorkshire towns, although built much later than originally planned, Ossett Town Hall (1907) reflects the civic pride that was a great feature of them. 

 

Ossett Town Hall

 

Unfortunately, the building was scaffolded at the time of my visit and, except for the large round gables at each end, there was very little to see of the building and I made no attempt to zoom in with my camera to see the details. I didn’t stop to examine the stone, but it is probably one of the best quality West Yorkshire sandstones and the caryatids flanking the doorway are carved from massive blocks of uniformly buff coloured sandstone. 

 

Caryatids at Ossett Town Hall

Ossett war memorial (1928), designed by the borough surveyor Mr H. Holmes and local architect Mr C. Kendall and sculpted by Robert Lindsay Clark, now forms a prominent feature in the large triangular market square, after being relocated twice in 1954 and 2001, but I didn’t get close enough to look at its details. 

 

Ossett war memorial

 

On the corner with Wesley Street is another former bank premises, originally built as the London City & Midland Bank (1891), using similar types of sandstone to those previously seen in the substantial buildings on Station Road. 

 

The former London City & Midland Bank building

 

Walking down Bank Street, I came across yet another former bank, the Wakefield and Barnsley Union Bank (1870). the Horbury and Ossett Family History Society refers to reports in the Wakefield Express, which describes it as being built in a Renaissance style design by William Watson of Wakefield, with the builders being Eastwood and Tolson and the stone used being Elland stone -  presumably the massive variety of sandstone from the Elland Flags. 

 

The former Wakefield and Barnsley Union Bank building

 

On the ground floor, the keystones are adorned with sculpted heads that are considered to include the classical deities: Minerva, Venus, Mars, Diana, Hebe and Mercury, but the head above the later portico is in a more modern style. These remind me of the keystones that adorn very many buildings of a similar age in nearby Dewsbury and I therefore wonder if there are links between the architects and sculptors.

 

Sculpted keystones on the Wakefield and Barnsley Union Bank building

Historic Architecture in Horbury - Part 2

 

Frampton Villa on Tithe Barn Street

Walking along Tithe Barn Street during the first part of my exploration of the historic architecture of Horbury, when arriving at the group of listed buildings comprising the lock up, Town School and Sunday School, I had reached the western limit of the town, as marked on the 1854 edition of the Ordnance Survey map. 

 

Tithe Barn Street on the 1897 and 1908 Ordnance Survey maps

Like many of the industrial towns and cities in northern England, the second half of the C19 saw a rapid expansion of Horbury and, continuing my walk along Tithe Barn Street, I immediately encountered examples of houses built in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, which have a completely different character. 

 

Victorian villas on Tithe Barn Street

 

On the north side, moderately sized detached villas with substantial grounds were built for the business owners and middle classes in the second half of the C19 and on the South side, centred on Bank Street, terraced houses for the workers appeared in the first decade of the C20. 

 

Terraced houses centred on Bank Street

 

I didn’t get near any of the larger houses to look at the stone that has been used, although my photo shows that High Bank – now extended and converted into flats - is built with a uniformly buff coloured sandstone, with the window surrounds being formed from massive blocks, which may be from the one of the major suppliers around Huddersfield and Bradford. 

 

The rockery at Frampton Villa

In the garden of Frampton Villa, a rockery in front of the house contains large blocks of white gypsum and black slag or crozzle, which is very commonly seen in Sheffield, where this waste material from the cementation furnaces was used to top the boundary walls of Victorian houses. 

 

The former Westfield Congregational Chapel

 

At the end of Tithe Barn Street, on the corner with High Street, is the former Westfield Congregational Chapel (c.1878), which is derelict and without a roof, but I didn’t stop to have a close look at and continued along Westfield Road to Horbury Library (1906). 

 

Horbury Library

 

The Horbury History website states that the Wakefield Express described its building materials as the best white Delph stone for the walling, Crosland Hill stone from Huddersfield for the dressings and blue Westmorland slate for the roof. 

 

Views of the old Town Hall

 

Next to the library is the old Town Hall (1903), where the muddy grey/brown colour of the walling stone and the pattern of iron staining is similar to sandstone seen earlier in my walk, which I have presumed to be the locally quarried Horbury Rock. The dressings are made of a uniformly coloured massive sandstone, which is suited to fine carving and this could also be Crosland Hill sandstone from the Rough Rock. 

 

Terraced houses on Jenkin Road and Park Street

 

After taking a few photographs of the later C19 terraced housing on Jenkin Road and Park Street, which are probably further examples of the Horbury Rock, I walked up Manor Road to see if I could find St. Peter’s Convent, but I couldn’t find any easy way to get there. 

 

Horbury Rock used for boundary walls

 

I followed a snicket for a short distance, where the rubble walling on both sides fully highlights the variation in the physical characteristics of the Horbury Rock – bed height, grain size and sedimentary structures – all of which are reflected by the weathering and durability of the individual stones used to build the walls. 

 

A specimen of Horbury Rock from a boundary wall

 

In one place, the lower section of the wall had failed and I collected a specimen of muddy grey/brown fine grained sandstone, which has an iron content that is seen as general orange staining and a thin band of ironstone. 

 

The former Sunday School on High Street

 

Returning to High Street, the former Sunday School attached to the Westfield Congregation Chapel, with its Coal Measures walling stone and medium grained gritstone dressings, I just took a record photo and continued to the junction with Highfield Road. 

 

The former bank building

 

The early C20 Neoclassical style former bank building, like the library and town hall, has some interesting architectural features but it it is not listed. Medium grained gritstone is used for the projecting central bay, the pediment above the door and a rotunda, with other details include the central oculus with swags and ionic capitals to the pilasters. 

 

A detail of a red granite column

 

Like most banks of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, red granite is used for the simple Tuscan columns that flank the door. At this time, red granites from Sweden and Finland were being imported into the major granite producing centre of Aberdeen, but this may be an example of the Ross of Mull granite. 

 

The former United Free Methodist Church

 

The United Free Methodist Church (1900) is another impressive building that is not listed and represents one of nine Methodist churches that once existed in Horbury, where there were four strands of Methodism. I didn’t examine the stone, but from my photos it looks like the muddy grey/brown walling is another use of Horbury Rock, with the dressings made of massive uniformly coloured medium grained gritstone. 

 

Lydgate Manor

 

I stopped briefly to photograph the Grade II Listed Lydgate Manor, which dates to the late C18 or early C19 and is built with Horbury Rock, painted massive sandstone dressings and a stone slate roof. I finished my very brief exploration of Horbury by photographing Lydgate House, before catching the No. 126 bus to Ossett.

 

Lydgate House