14 0677 Heritage Statement
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NEIL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES Established 1994 NIGEL R. J. NEIL, MA, MSc, MIfA, LRPS 5 HILLSIDE, CASTLE PARK, LANCASTER, LA1 1YH Tel/Voicemail 01524 844 728 Mobile/Voicemail 07968 621 530 e-mail: [email protected] Desk-based & field evaluation of sites Archaeological watching briefs Standing building photography, survey, & analysis Environmental Impact Assessment Garden History projects Outreach and lectures Proposed alteration to entrance porch handrail WHALLEY ABBEY Lancashire Desk-Based Assessment and Heritage Statement Listed Building Consent ref. 3 / 2014 / 0677 The entrance staircase to Whalley Abbey in 1889, by a member of the Grant family (photo courtesy of Clitheroe Library) DRAFT 2 18th August 2014 Prepared on behalf of: Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance, IWA Architects Ltd., English Heritage, Ribble Valley Borough Council, and Lancashire County Archaeological Service Whalley Abbey Conference House porch, Lancs.: desk-based assessment and Heritage Statement 1 CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 1. INTRODUCTION 4 1.1 Site location and project circumstances 4 1.2 Heritage status 8 1.3 Planning situation, 2014 9 1.4 Previous assessment of heritage significance 11 1.5 Ongoing desk-based and scientific research 13 1.6 Archaeological watching briefs 15 1.7 Outline history up to the Dissolution of the Monasteries 19 1.8 The Dissolution of Whalley Abbey, and its later owners 20 2. DESK-BASED ASSESSMENT OF NORTH PORCH & SURROUNDING AREA 23 2.1 Illustrative sources 23 2.2 Chronology of twentieth-century alterations 26 3. ASSESSMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE 29 3.1 Assessment criteria 29 3.2 Construction phases 30 3.3 Assessment of the proposed development in context 30 3.4 Recommendations 31 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY 33 4.1 Primary sources 33 4.2 Published primary, and secondary sources 34 4.3 Sources located but not seen 35 For the use of Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance, IWA Architects Ltd., English Heritage, Neil Archaeological Services Ribble Valley Borough Council, and Lancashire County Archaeological Service Aug 2014 Whalley Abbey Conference House porch, Lancs.: desk-based assessment and Heritage Statement 2 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig 1 Ground Floor plan of the Conference House based on Lloyd Evans Prichard’s (LEP 2002) phasing. 4 Fig 2 Partial First Floor plan of the Conference House. 5 Fig 3 View of the north elevation of the conference house, showing simplified phasing. 6 Fig 4 Extract from first floor plan, 1923 when purchased by Manchester Diocesan Board of Finance. 6 Fig 5 Views showing location of staircase handrails. 6 Fig 6 Views of the existing guardrails and handrails to the external staircase. 7 Fig 7 Extent of the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Whalley Abbey. 9 Fig 8 IWA Architects’ proposal drawings for extension to handrail. 10 Fig 9 Interpretation of the 2005 dendrochronology results from the Conference House. 14 Fig 10 (a) View of the Great Hall roof; (b) sampling one of the Great Hall trusses. 14 Fig 11 (a) Sanding a core sample; (b) collection of cores; (c) infilling a core site with dowel and filler. 14 Fig 12 Earlier alterations to the external staircase: (a) 1954; (b) kitchen access during alterations 1967-68. 15 Fig 13 Detail from 1999-2005 watching brief report, showing possible original extent of porch to North West Wing. 16 Fig 14 (a) North West Wing porch and disabled access ramp; (b) Buckler’s view of south elevation of 16 Long Gallery, 1818, showing lost first floor window; (c) engaged column fragment recovered from 1999 disabled access watching brief. Fig 15 The wooden structure under the flagstone landing of the first-floor entrance porch, 2005. 17 Fig 16 2005 architect’s drawings for guardrail and strengthening of first floor porch landing. 18 Fig 17 (a) Datestone of 1588 on the east elevation of the Conference House; (b) lead gutter of 1698, 21 repaired 1991, on the front elevation of the Conference House. Fig 18 (a, b) Buck brothers’ 1727 view of the abbey; (c) detail from Porter’s map of 1762. 23 Fig 19 (a) Extract from Whitaker’s ground floor plan, 1801, showing external staircase and Long Gallery; 24 (b) detail from Earl Howe’s sale conveyance, 1834. Fig 20 Buckler view of the north elevation of the Conference House, 1808. 24 Fig 21 (a) Detail from Buckler illustration; (b) detail from drawing by Rev’d S. J. Allen, c. 1834. 24 Fig 22 Earliest known photograph of the house, by the Grant family, c. 1870. 25 Fig 23 Very clear photograph of the front elevation of the house, by Pye of Clitheroe, 13 Sept 1889. 25 Fig 24 Photographs from (a) c. 1910, and (b) 22 June 1936. 26 Fig 25 Undated photograph, c. 1990. 26 Fig 26 Miss Peggy Gradwell, warden, inspecting the doorway found in 1966. 27 For the use of Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance, IWA Architects Ltd., English Heritage, Neil Archaeological Services Ribble Valley Borough Council, and Lancashire County Archaeological Service Aug 2014 Whalley Abbey Conference House porch, Lancs.: desk-based assessment and Heritage Statement 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to thank Ivan Wilson and Tom McTernan of IWA Architects Ltd., who provided assistance with logistics, and copies of proposal drawings. Christine Nelson and her colleagues at Whalley Abbey Conference House, and Elaine Hargreaves at Blackburn Diocese, provided assistance throughout the assessment. It would not have been possible, during earlier desk-based assessment forays as well as the present project, to study as many relevant documents as were seen without the assistance of the staff of Lancashire Archives, especially Anna Watson, MBE, whose unrivalled knowledge of Blackburn Diocese’s deposits proved invaluable. Glenda Cook of Napthens, solicitors, provided access to records held for Blackburn Registry at Church House, Blackburn, and Sandra Bonsall and Debbie Waddington to those held by Oxford Archaeology North in Lancaster. CONTACT DETAILS The Client Mrs Elaine Hargreaves, Head of Support Services Tel: 01254 503072 Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance Fax: 01254 693052 Church House, Cathedral Close E-mail: [email protected] Blackburn, BB1 5AA The architects Ivan Wilson, IHBC, AABC, RIBA, Conservation Architect / Director IWA Architects Ltd. Tel: 01200 423487 Waterloo Mill Fax: 01200 458278 Waterloo Road E-mail: [email protected] Clitheroe, BB7 1LR Website: www.iwarchitects.co.uk For the use of Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance, IWA Architects Ltd., English Heritage, Neil Archaeological Services Ribble Valley Borough Council, and Lancashire County Archaeological Service Aug 2014 Whalley Abbey Conference House porch, Lancs.: desk-based assessment and Heritage Statement 4 1. INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction- 1.1 Site location and project circumstances 1.1.1 This document has been produced to assist Ribble Valley Borough Council in determining a Listed Building Consent (LBC) application (ref 3 / 2014 / 0677) concerning proposed alterations to a handrail on the external staircase to the first floor entrance of the Conference House at Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, BB7 9SS (NGR SD 73125 36055). The report includes the results of a programme of archaeological desk-based work, commissioned from Neil Archaeological Services of Lancaster (Nigel R.J. Neil, MA, MSc, MIfA, LRPS) by IWA Architects Ltd., Clitheroe (the agents), on behalf of Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance (the applicants). Fig 1 Ground Floor plan of the Conference House enhanced by the present writer (Neil 2006) based on Lloyd Evans Prichard’s (LEP 2002) phasing, from the interim report on 2005 refurbishment watching brief. Medieval elements are represented in yellow and green, post-Dissolution elements in shades of purple, and modern elements in orange. Excavated trenches for drainage and other works are shown in grey. 1.1.2 The Whalley Abbey Conference House (Figs 1 and 2) is a complex building, including both in situ and re-sited parts of structures from the mid-thirteenth century onwards. At its core lies the first floor Great Hall, and adjacent parts of the former abbot’s lodgings of the abbey, timbers For the use of Blackburn Diocesan Board of Finance, IWA Architects Ltd., English Heritage, Neil Archaeological Services Ribble Valley Borough Council, and Lancashire County Archaeological Service Aug 2014 Whalley Abbey Conference House porch, Lancs.: desk-based assessment and Heritage Statement 5 from which have been dated by dendrochronology to 1478-1508 (Bridge 2007; further samples are currently being processed). Documentary research has indicated that the Assheton family acquired the property in 1554, some 15 years after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and progressively altered and enlarged it until the sale of the property in 1834 by their descendant Earl Howe. Alteration continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries under successive private owners, and during tenure by Manchester Anglican Diocese (1923-26), and Blackburn Anglican Diocese (since 1926). 1.1.3 Major refurbishment was undertaken in 2005 (LBC ref. 3/2004/0708; SMC ref. HSD/9/2/6545), during which an archaeological watching brief was maintained by the present writer (Neil 2006; 2007). The external staircase – probably close to the location of a pre-Dissolution structure – appears to be contemporary with the northern bay of the house, which was added in the late seventeenth century, but it is more difficult to confirm that the first floor entrance porch is also of this date. The fenestration of the northern bay was altered during the nineteenth century, and the staircase has been repaired and partly rebuilt on at least one occasion in the mid twentieth century. The handrail at issue is one of a suite of handrails and guard-rails installed on the external staircase to aid passage up and especially down this entrance route, which some visitors find quite challenging. These have been installed at various dates up to 2005; but the date when the upper eastern handrail was put in place cannot be determined exactly.