An Exploration of East Bank in Winster

 

A view down East Bank

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Winster, started on Wensley Road, I turned down East Bank to where Peace Haven forms part of the property described by Historic England (HE) as the C17 House to the North West of Bowling Green Inn – Grade II Listed for group value - which is quite confusing and doesn’t precisely identify the property in question. 

 

Peace Haven

HE goes on to describe the building materials as coursed rubble gritstone with quoins but, although massive gritstone has been used for the dressings, blocked up windows and isolated blocks of stone, I think that the bulk of the cream/yellowish coloured walling is probably dolomitised Carboniferous Limestone. 

 

Marmalade Cottage and No. 3 East Bank

 

The irregularly coursed and very roughly dressed walling contrasts strongly with the pattern of the masonry to the adjoining early C19 Marmalade Cottage and No. 3 East Bank, which form part of a terrace that is clearly built with light brown/red gritstone and includes the unlisted East Leigh. 

 

East Leigh

On the opposite side of East Bank is the Bowling Green Inn, dated as C18 with C19 alterations, which is an example of well coursed but quite roughly squared gritstone that is often very reddened. Except for Lansdowne House and Georgic House, which still retains its original stone slate roof, nearly all of the listed buildings that I had seen to date have had their roofs renewed with Welsh slate and this can be seen here. 

 

Bowling Green Inn

 

Buxton House, a pair of early C19 cottages that have been converted into a single residence, has its front elevation built with dressed and very well squared and coursed red, mottled and light brown gritstone walling and dressings, but the East Lane elevation uses irregularly sized, shaped and coursed blocks of limestone and occasional blocks of gritstone. 

 

Buxton House

 

Continuing up East Bank, which progressively steepens, all of the buildings that I could see are marked on the 1884 Ordnance Survey (OS) map and the same pattern of grey limestone and/or reddened gritstone appear in all of them. 

 

A view up East Bank

The Headlands (c.1800), which I could only glimpse from the road, and the house to the south-west - dating to the C17 and refashioned in the C18 - are quite substantial and were evidently built for residents that had a much higher social status than the lead miners, who occupied the humble cottages in the area known as Winster Bank. 

 

The Headlands and the house to the south-west

Opposite these houses is the elegant Wesleyan Reform Chapel (1852), which is not listed but makes a significant contribution to the Conservation Area, which essentially includes all of the tightly packed buildings marked on the 1884 OS map, but very surprisingly has not had a Conservation Area Appraisal produced for it. 

 

The Wesleyan Reform Chapel

Further up the hill, Nos. 3 and 4 Anson Row and Portaway Cottage are another terrace of four C18 picturesque cottages, which are built with limestone rubble walling and red gritstone dressings but, as with very many of the listed buildings that I had so far seen, they don’t possess great architectural merit. 

 

Nos. 3 and 4 Anson Row and Portaway Cottage

 

“Jasmine Cottage and attached house at north end” was the next building on my list to photograph, but the HE listing description again isn’t that easy to follow and, if there wasn’t a name plate on Jasmine Cottage, I am not sure that I would have found it.

 

Jasmine Cottage and attached house

 

The most notable feature to my mind are the massive red gritstone quoins and for the door surround to Jasmine Cottage and I just took a few photos of the pair of buildings from different angles, before walking further up East Bank.

 

Dolomitised limestone in a boundary wall

 

Passing one of the boundary walls built with limestone rubble, I noticed that some contain irregular blocks that are full of voids and which I presume to be the dolomitised limestone from either the Eyam Limestone or Monsal Dale Limestone formations. A little further on, the next building on my list was the early C19 Rose Cottage, where I could only see part of the front elevation and its original stone slate roof. 

 

Rose Cottage

Continuing along East Bank, which here runs east to west along the southern extremity of the village, I could only look down at the rear elevation of the C18 Manse House. By now I had noted the various building stones that reflect the geology around Winster and, with respect  to the styles and features of its simple vernacular architecture, there is not much more to say other than the projection to the rear is described by HE as a shallow gabled stair turret.

 

The rear elevation of Manse House

 

The next building on my list was Autumn Cottage, another C18 cottage built with limestone rubble walling, reddened gritstone dressings – which includes very large stones for the quoins, door surround and mullioned windows - and Welsh slate has replaced the original stone slate. 

 

Autumn Cottage

 

The walk from Wensley Road had taken me from an elevation of approximately 237 m to 275 m, which provided me with great views across Winster to the high ground formed by the outlier of Ashover Grit, which I had explored a few weeks earlier at Rowtor Rocks and Stanton Moor. 

 

The topography between Winster and Stanton Moor

 

Taking the public footpath that eventually led me to West Bank, I took photographs of the front and rear elevations of Rock View – yet another C18 house built with limestone rubble, red gritstone dressings and a Welsh slate roof. 

 

Rock View