Listed Buildings on Hick Lane in Batley

 

The tympanum on the Union Rooms public house

Leaving Station Road and crossing over Bradford Road, I started my walk to the modern centre of Batley and stopped to take a couple of photos of the former warehouse and shop premises (c.1870), which is now occupied by the Batley Barless Fire Company. 

 

The building occupied by the Batley Barless Fire Company

Set on the corner of Bradford Road and Hick Lane, with a triangular plan and a curving corner bay is, it is designed in a Classical style and is built in Thornhill Rock ashlar but I only took photos of each elevation, from which I could see the Cheapside Mills and Hick Lane Mills, before continuing along Hick Lane. 

 

The building occupied by the Batley Barless Fire Company

 

On the opposite side of the road is the former mid to late C19 Midland Bank, which had last been used as The Bank public house but was to let at the time of my visit. It is built with sandstone ashlar, but the front elevation has very bold dressings and architectural features. 

 

The former Midland Bank

 

The ground floor, large quoins and voussoirs to the windows are rusticated, the cornice and moulded string course are bracketted and the porch has scrolled brackets with large festooned consoles that support a full entablature with a balcony. 

 

Keystones on the former Midland Bank

 

The most interesting features are the large keystones with well carved figure heads, which remind me of the very many keystones that I have seen in Dewsbury and also in Ossett. I have not yet come across any Historic England (HE) listing description that refers to the sculptor, although Leeds based sculptors such as John Wormald Appleyard and Mawer and Ingle could easily have made use of the Great Northern Railway to transport their work to Batley. 

 

The Methodist Sunday School

 

Continuing along Hick Lane, my next stop was the Methodist Sunday School, which HE yet again very loosely describes as having a date of c.1870. The main elevation is north facing and with it being in the shade I couldn’t really make these out from a distance, but the upper windows have pilaster surrounds with Corinthian capitals. 

 

The pediment of the Wesleyan Methodist Church

Next door to this is the former Wesleyan Methodist Church (c.1861), which the Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland attributes to the architect J. Simpson and closed in 1956. The architectural features, especially the windows, are very similar to the Sunday School and it is therefore likely that he also designed this. 

 

 

The Wesleyan Methodist Church

A little further along Hick Lane is the Union Rooms public house owned by JD Wetherspoon, which typically occupy listed buildings, and is described by HE as the Barclays Bank Building but which was originally built for the West Riding Union Bank in 1877. 

 

The Union Rooms public house

 

I presume that the sandstone used here is also Thornhill Rock and the intricate carving and raised lettering on the porch have retained their sharp profiles, which is also a feature of the architectural sculpture that I had seen on the warehouses on Station Road.

 

The porch of the Union Rooms public house

 

The tympanum is described by HE as having a round carved plate with 3 shields, with the centre one bearing the Huddersfield coat of arms. I didn’t take the time to look at the fine details, but my photograph of one of the foliated capitals shows ears of wheat and wood mice.

A capital on the porch of the Union Rooms public house

Station Road in Batley - Part 2

 

Nos. 13-23 Station Road

Carrying on down Station Road in Batley, Nos. 20-22 and Nos. 16-18 are further examples of warehouses/showrooms that were erected c.1870 and are described in the Station Road Conservation Area Appraisal (SACAA) as intended to parade the wealth and prestige of the wool manufacturing firms that built them to display their wares to buyers brought in by the railway.

 

Nos. 16-22 Station Road

They are designed with essentially Classical features and proportions and built with what I again presume to be the Thornhill Rock, with a combination of square headed and round headed windows, prominent keystones, pilasters and rusticated quoins, with a very different style to those further up Station Road. 

 

Nos. 12-14 Station Road

Nos. 12-14 or not listed, but it retains its loading doors and lifting beam, and Nos. 35-37 on the north side of Station Road prove further examples of quite ornate warehouses. An edited version of the Historic England (HE) description of the stonework refers to ‘dressed stone facade with deeply coursed rock-faced stone to ground floor and quoins with very heavily rock-faced voussoirs and surrounds to the ground floor windows and doors’. 

 

Rock-faced voussoirs on No. 37 Station Road.

 

Nos. 31-33, on the corner of Station Road and Warehouse Street is, built with sandstone walling with a batted finish, ashlar quoins and dressings and vermiculated masonry at basement level. The ground floor windows are round arched with 2 round arched lights and a circle above, and have a central engaged colonnette with a foliated capital. 

 

Nos. 31-33 Station Road

 

Continuing to Soothill Lane, HE describe Nos. 13-23 as formerly industrial or warehousing, with an ashlar Italian Gothic facade, and has alternating voussoirs of Thornhill Rock and red sandstone to the first floor window arches, which suggests that the architect was the same one responsible for the former Xclusive nightclub, Nos. 32-40 and Nos. 24-26. 

 

Nos. 13-23 Station Road

I didn’t cross over the road to look at it details, but HE describe the ground floor windows as having carved grotesque bats and beasts at their points of intersection and foliated capitals including acanthus, vines, thistles, roses and passion flowers to the ground floor openings. 

 

The south-west elevation of Nos. 13-23 Station Road

On the opposite side of the road is the Jessops building, which was built in 1924 as a factory by Jessops Tailors, a successful tailoring business that was originally founded c.1880 by George Jessop and his son Henry. 

 

The Jessops building

 

Although I didn’t take a photo of Nos. 2-8 Station Road, except a detail, the blue plaque on this Classical style warehouse briefly describes the history of this company and how it acquired premises in the immediately vicinity to expand the business. 

 

The blue plaque on Nos. 2-8 Station Road

 

At the triangular junction of Station Road and Bradford Road, I was very surprised to encounter a large structure, comprising three diminishing sized arches stacked up on each other, but there was no information to tell me what it was. 

 

Batley Arch

 

Looking more closely at this structure, I was interested to see that is decorated with bat motifs carved in relief, with details of ears of corn to reflect the local corn mills, and topped with a couple of bat sculptures, one of which has had its wing broken. To either side of each arch, there is a miniature building with a steep pyramidal roof in the same style as that seen at Nos. 13-23. 

 

A detail of the Batley Arch

 

I have since discovered that the Batley Arch or Bats Monument is the work of Rory McNally and Chloe Cookson and was erected in 1995 as a gateway to the Station Road Conservation Area, as part of the Batley City Challenge, and was designed to reflect the town's history. 

 

A detail of the Batley Arch

 

Station Road in Batley - Part 1

 

The arch above the doorway to No. 40 Station Road

My introduction to Batley, with the wonderful architectural sculpture at No. 51 Station Road, was completely unexpected and, as with the very many textile warehouses that I had seen on Bond Street and Wellington Road in Dewsbury, the blue plaque attached to this states that it was designed to impress visitors arriving on the train.

 

The blue plaque on No. 51 Station Road

Attached to No. 51 are the remains of another warehouse and office (c.1870), which Historic England (HE) describe as being in the Italian Gothic style and was recently used as the Xclusive nightclub, but which seemed to be unoccupied at the time of my visit.

 

The former Xclusive nightclub (L)

 

I only took a photo of the rock faced walling at basement level, which looks to be another example of the fine grained Thornhill Rock that has differentially weathered to reveal both plane and cross-bedding. The same sandstone has been used for the ashlar masonry above, but I was more interested in the red sandstone that is used for the alternate voussoirs in the blind arches.

 

Rock faced walling at the former Xclusive nightclub

 

I could not get near enough to have a close look at this red stone, but I normally associate this with Red Mansfield stone, a dolomitic sandstone that is a variety of the Upper Permian Cadeby Formation and is thought to have been formed as a sandbank at the mouth of a river.

 

No. 40 Station Road

On the opposite side of the road, this red sandstone is also seen in the voussoirs of Nos. 32 to 40 Station Road (c.1870) - another set of warehouses that are designed in the same Italian Gothic architectural style as the Xclusive nightclub – but following a fire only Nos. 32 and 40 remain.

 

No. 32 Station Road

 

HE make no mention of the architects that designed any of these buildings, and Kirklees Council have no records, but it is very possible that they were the work of Michael Sheard and Walter Hanstock, whose practice was responsible for several mills and commercial premises in Batley. Vivien Tomlinson's Family History does make a reference to a warehouse for Abraham Brooke (c.1873), although the specific building is not mentioned.

 

A carving of a squirrel on No. 32 Station Road

Unlike the Xclusive nightclub, the ground floor window arches are decorated by finely carved floral details and animals, with the pilasters on No. 32 being decorated with a squirrel and flowers, which still retain their very sharp details.

 

Intricately carved flowers on No. 32 Station Road

 

Continuing down Station Road, Nos. 24 and 26 (c.1870) are again described by HE as warehouses in the Italian Gothic style, with the design of the first floor windows being identical to the buildings mentioned above.

 

Nos. 24 and 26 Station Road

The architectural details of the ground floor and second floor, however, are more typical of the Neoclassical style, with square headed windows and string courses, central engaged columns to the second floor windows and richly foliate capitals to the ground floor pilasters.

 

A capital on Nos. 24 and 26 Station Road

 

No. 51 Station Road in Batley

 

A keystone

Arriving at Batley railway station on the train from Leeds at 10:37 am, having left Treeton just over two hours earlier, I set off across a large forecourt that is paved with large rectangular sandstone road setts and immediately sensed that I was surrounded by a former industrial area, which is now part of the Station Road Conservation Area. 

 

The station forecourt

When later looking at old Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, several mills and a gas works had been built in the vicinity of the station by the end of the C19, with extensive railway sidings, which coincided with the rapid growth of Batley and other nearby towns in the Heavy Woollen District during the second half of the C19 – based on the production of shoddy and mungo. 

 

The OS map showing the area around Batley railway station

 

Although not part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, the first building that I noticed was the elaborately decorated No. 51 Station Road (c.1880), which the Historic England (HE) description records as "formerly office and warehouse premises". 

 

A view of No. 51 Station Road from the forecourt of the railway station

 

Getting closer to the 7-bay rounded façade, I was very interested to see that the keystones to the ground floor windows are exquisitely carved with a monkey and birds, which HE state as including an owl, eagle and a macaw. 

Carved keystones

HE describes the corner with Warehouse Street as having a turret on the 1st and 2nd floors, but could which also be considered to be an oriel window. The soffit of this is carved in relief with various animals and floral details, beneath which is a round headed window with an enlarged keystone carved in the form of a bat. 

 

The keystone with a bat and the soffit to the oriel window

 

Moving round to the entrance and porch, HE further highlights the elaborately carved capitals that are composed with foliage and sheep heads, which are a motif that I have frequently seen in the textile producing towns - especially in Dewsbury, where I also came across very many fine examples of figurative sculpture on the keystones. 

 

The porch

 

The capitals are set on columns of pink Peterhead granite, which was quarried on the Aberdeenshire coast and, together with Rubislaw granite, is very often seen in later Victorian banks and other public buildings all over the UK. 

 

A detail of a column and capital

 

Looking up at the gable, there are more examples of fine architectural sculpture, with the cornice decorated with stylised floral motifs and above this is a shield flanked by sitting figures and it is surmounted by a squatting dog. 

 

The gable

 

I didn’t look closely at the sandstone, but from my photos it is quite uniformly light brown in colour and appears to be fine grained, with both plane bedding and cross-bedding. Looking at the geological map, much of the area is underlain by the Thornhill Rock and the Building Stones Database for England map explorer shows that this was quarried at several places less than 3 km to the north-east.

 

Quarries on the Thornhill Rock

 

Planning a Day Out to Batley & Birstall

 

A sign at Batley railway station

 

Following on from my brief visit to the village of Wortley, principally to see Wortley Hall and St. Leonard’s church, my next day out on the buses and trains was to explore Batley and Birstall in West Yorkshire - on the second Saturday of the Heritage Open Days (HOD) festival.

 

The locations of Treeton and Birstall

 

In previous years, I had made a considerable effort to travel far to visit one of the mediaeval churches that opened its doors - Barwick-in-Elmet, Scarcliffe, Methley, Ault Hucknall, Whitkirk and Kirkthorpe - but it was becoming increasingly difficult to justify my travel time to remote villages, where the buses often only run every 2 hours.

 

A British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Batley and Birstall

 

On this occasion, I was aware that Batley Library and the Grade II* listed St. Peter’s church was open for HOD and that a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge would give me a good reason to further explore the textile producing towns of West Yorkshire – as I had done earlier in the year at Morley, Halifax and Huddersfield.

 

An extract from the No. 201 bus timetable

 

As I was becoming increasingly aware of, a day out on the buses and trains from Treeton – which has been described as a “downtrodden backwater” and “the forgotten village” and the bus services have been cut to the bone – had started to take a lot of organising. Although I had caught a train to Leeds and then a bus to my final destination several times before, the No. 201 bus takes an hour to get to Batley and I therefore decided to catch another train at Leeds railway station.

 

An extract from the National Rail Journey Planner

Having established the quickest way to get to Batley, albeit not covered by my travel pass, the next step was to plan a route from Batley and Birstall, where several properties had appeared in the postcode search for my Photo Challenge, but were located some distance from St. Peter’s church.

 

The topography around Batley and Birstall

 

Although only a short distance between Birtley and Birstall as the crow flies, looking at the topographic map, these listed buildings are spread across a valley formed by a tributary of the River Calder and a walk up to the Bagshaw Museum required a walk up an escarpment formed by the Emley Rock – at an elevation 65 m higher than the entrance to Wilton Park on Bradford Road.

 

An extract from the No. 283 bus timetable

 

Whilst in the area, I also planned to visit Batley Cemetery to continue a personal project to photograph some of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstones, which had regimental crests that I had not seen before, so I thought it best to catch the No. 283 bus from Batley to Birstall - to reduce the stress on my ageing knees on what would be a long day out.

 

 

As with many trips to cemeteries to find these CWGC headstones, I started by downloading an Excel spreadsheet from their website before editing into a format that I could include in my worksheet for the day. Very often, those headstones on the CWGC website are actually non standard memorials and, to eliminate these, I used the War Graves Photographic Project website and finally found a plot plan to help me find those on my list.

 

The plot plan for Batley Cemetery