The Victorian Society in Registered Charity No. 1081435 Registered Charity No.1081435 Winter Newsletter 2013

history a mid-point between the was abolished in the decade following EDITORIAL Napoleonic Wars and the mechanized the conflict. CRIMEAN WAR: Commemoration carnage of the First World War. In and the adjustment to reality. common with that war, its causes are All the contemporary Times reports inexplicable if you leave out meticulous from the war front had immediate and observation of international treaty dramatic consequences including obligations. Essentially the Crimean the eventual fall of the then British War was a religious war between Government. One of the less the Christian Russian and Islamic exalted outcomes of these reports Ottoman Empires with Turkey having of the privations at the front was the as its allies the British and the French. appearance in the Crimea of an army Our involvement in the war was of black market privateers willing and strange enough but so was the war able to supply every need at a price. itself. It combined some up-to-date More famously, Florence Nightingale technologies with medieval chivalric and Mary Seacole fled to the war zone codes, for example, truces to clear to attend to the sick and the injured. the battlefields of the wounded and The chef Alexis Soyer went to improve the dead. It was the first war which the lot of the troops with his newly left a photographic legacy, images devised field stove and to bring a taken by mainly British and French more professional approach to military photographers. catering.

The Crimean War was hugely significant because it further John Bell's Crimean War Memorial, established a number of firsts in the Waterloo Place, 1861. technology of warfare. It was the first conflict in which steamships, railways As we look ahead to 1914, powerful and the electric telegraph played an forces have decided that we should important part. Sections of railway commemorate in that year the were even constructed during the centenary of the outbreak of the First war itself to move ammunition and World War. Many believe it would be supplies. Battle orders were cabled more appropriate to wait four years from Whitehall directly to the theatres and commemorate only the end of of war. The same invention carried the war which claimed one million back almost real-time dispatches British lives. We are now in that from the journalist William Howard time of year deemed appropriate for Russell which were printed in The reflection on the losses arising from Times. These reports covered the originally the First World War and inadequacy of hospital facilities and the memorialisation of the dead in catering arrangements for the troops that and later conflicts. However, with along with deficiencies in their clothing, commemoration in mind, let us turn equipment and resources. More sensitively for Whitehall, they covered to an earlier war, the Crimean War Boer War Memorial, Manchester, the incompetence of the by-and-large which Britain entered in 1854 and Hamo Thorneycroft, 1907. was involved in until 1856. Despite aristocratic leaders of the campaign. 22,000 British deaths in a total of Some of these leaders had paid One of the most efficient military style three quarters of a million it is a war staggering sums of money for their operations of the war was a feat of that, apart from tangential references commissions. The Earl of Cardigan civil engineering: the construction of to Florence Nightingale, is largely who led the Charge of the Light a railway in a matter of weeks from forgotten in comparison with the two Brigade at Balaclava (immortalised in the port of Balaclava to Sevastopol great wars of the twentieth century Tennyson’s poem) had paid, it is said, to aid ending the siege. This was and more recent conflicts. The £40,000 – not money equivalent now, masterminded by Thomas Brassey Crimean War occupies in European but cash then. This astonishing system and recorded in his biography written 1 by his great-great-grandson Thomas Brigade’s charge exaggerated the off the Mall in London. (In 1914 the Stacey: 'By mid-December, the scale of the causalities and diminished monument was moved back slightly advance party of 54 of Brassey’s the importance of what was, at so that it could be flanked by statues navvies had embarked on the least technically, a military victory. of Florence Nightingale and Sidney clipper Wildflower each with his Queen Victoria echoed the nation’s Herbert, Secretary of State for War own waterproof bag, a 'painted' sentiments at the end of the war when during the Crimean campaign.) suit, 3 cotton shirts, 2 flannel shirts, she wrote in her journal 'I own that a flannel belt, a pair of moleskin peace rather sticks in my throat'. There The three Guardsmen depicted on the trousers, a serge-lined moleskin vest, was a feeling that the victory had been main face of the monument represent a Fearnaught slop (a kind of loose incomplete and less than ideal. The the Grenadier, Fusilier and Coldstream overgarment), a woollen coat, a pair of British Imperial Lion had been shown regiments. They stand in solemn pose drawers, 2 cravats, a pair of leggings, possibly to have feet of clay. Some of in front of their regimental colours stockings, regular boots, waterproof these feelings would be replicated in holding their rifles and wearing their long boots, fisherman’s boots, and the twentieth century arising from the greatcoats and bearskins against the hob-nailed boots, a bed, a pillow, Suez Crisis one hundred years later. Crimean cold, a less than accurate 3 blankets and a rug, 2 pounds of picture of the real circumstances tobacco and a portable stove'. The year following the end of the of the campaign. Above them on Crimean War saw the introduction the top of the monument stands of the Victoria Cross – the supreme an allegorical figure holding laurel award for valour under fire which, wreaths aloft. Interestingly, when the uniquely for the time, could be sculpture was erected, this figure was awarded to any recipient regardless called Honour, perhaps reflecting of their rank or class. The medals, uncertain views about the outcome struck from metal from a Russian of the war. It is now usually referred gun captured at Sevastopol, were to as the figure of Victory in common awarded to 62 veterans of the Crimean with many later representations of its campaign in a ceremony presided type on war memorials. The figures over by Queen Victoria. In a twist were cast in bronze from Russian that appeals to the 21st century, it is guns captured at Sevastopol and now thought that the bronze cannon some of the actual guns are placed that produced the medals was on the back of the monument. The actually an antique Chinese model. substantive part of the memorial, Queen Victoria also commissioned the emphasis on the depiction of photographs of injured soldiers ordinary soldiers in uniform bearing convalescing at Chatham military arms, arguably became an influential hospital. The most famous of these model for many Boer War memorials shows three veterans, one injured and such as the examples in Manchester, two having suffered leg amputations and Bury. Later this style due to frostbite. As is well-known, was copied for many First World more lives were lost to disease and the War memorials although in that severe cold of the 1855 winter than to case it was largely overtaken by the Boer War Memorial by George gunshot. convention for cenotaphs (the empty Frampton Bury 1905, tombs of classical antiquity) especially One of the results of all the post-war following the erection of the Edwin The navvies’ equipment and soul-searching was that, when the Lutyens model in Whitehall. The organization made a sharp contrast Government came to commission a nation, overwhelmed and stunned by to the efforts of the military. Major- memorial from John Bell the sculptor the scale of the losses in the Great General Sir Henry Clifford wrote in a to mark the victory and its sacrifice, the War, could not merely follow previous letter home that the navvies had the style and substance of that monument commemoration responses. appearance of 'unutterable things' was unprecedented for the time. Whilst David Astbury David Harwood yet, 'did more work in a day than a both Trajan’s column in Rome and November 2013 regiment of soldiers did in a week'. Nelson’s column in London depict photographs courtesy David Astbury ordinary troops and their actions, there The Government (influenced among can be no doubt as to the heroes The Victorian Society Manchester others by Prince Albert) dispatched the being commemorated. However as c/o Portico Library photographer Roger Fenton, in what Richard Barnes, the biographer of 57 Mosley Street we would call today a public relations John Bell, points out, the Guards Manchester M2 3HY campaign, to produce images to Crimean War Memorial was the first to counter the impression of The Times' depict the ordinary soldiers as heroes. The Victorian Society is the champion reports which presented the military Unveiled in 1861 it commemorates for Victorian and Edwardian buildings in a very bad light. Modern research over 2,000 Guardsmen killed in the in England and Wales indicates that the reports of the Light war and stands in Waterloo Place, just

2 Ancoats Hospital Victorian mills would be transformed NEWS As members may have read in the into luxury living spaces which it was A Chromatic Revolution: the press, there is renewed hope for the assumed would sell like hot cakes. search for affordable colour conservation of this building. An HLF Initially some did but, as the demand in 19th century British book Start-Up Grant has been awarded to for city-centre apartments slackened illustration. the project, essentially a small sum of off and the recession bit five years money to finance an up-dated option ago, expectations were not entirely An exhibition of books and prints viability study. It may be that the realised. In particular the organic from the MMU collections, including altered economic climate will allow growth of the Northern Quarter to the Mary Butcher Collection of possibilities not envisaged some the south-west of Great Ancoats Baxter prints, exploring commercial years ago. Street has probably removed and technical developments in the chances of shops, bars and colour printing throughout the The Manchester Group of the restaurants appearing in the Ancoats 19th century, from hand-coloured Victorian Society must pay tribute to Conservation Area itself. However, woodblocks to the earliest the determined and focussed work as required by the locals, part of photomechanical printing processes. of Linda Carver and her dedicated the renovated Victorian former food team, mainly residents, all passionate warehouse on Blossom Street does about the heritage of Ancoats. now house a mini-supermarket.

From the roadside vigil onwards, The eternal property boom and bust when demolition was imminent, belief cycle is now trending upwards once tempered with realism has never more and on speaking to several been lacking. There is still a long way Ancoats residents I found that what to go, now is not the time for rejoicing has actually happened there is very but it may be time for that most much appreciated. They can sleep at Mancunian of sentiments – cautious night in peace and silence and when optimism. they want noise and excitement they simply cross Great Ancoats Street Ancoats : a pause for thought to enjoy the delights of the Northern Recently I took advantage of an Quarter. opportunity for the public to enter what is now Hallé - St Peters So, in terms of the original vision and church in Blossom Street, Ancoats. conservation, the question is whether The Federation of North West Art not planning and letting things evolve Societies held an exhibition there. works out better than planning? The conservation and possible Discuss. re-use of this long redundant 1859 Isaac Holden & Son Anglican church David Astbury...... 5 October 2013 The Victorian Album or Cabinet of was always envisaged in the Ancoats Paintings. London, Chapman and Conservation Area regeneration Trollope Meeting Hall, 1837. MMU Special Collections. plans drawn up more than twenty As announced at our October years ago. meeting, the Committee of the 27th January – 16th May 2014 Manchester Group has allowed the MMU Special Collections A major restoration of St Peter’s admission price for certain meetings Sir Kenneth Green Library church took place fifteen years ago to rise above our usual £5.00. The Manchester Metropolitan University and it is now used by the Hallé additional revenue from this is All Saints Orchestra for rehearsal purposes. intended mainly to allow us to entice Oxford Road Certain necessary (and reversible) speakers who may have significant Manchester modifications have taken place such travel or other expenses. M15 6BH as suspended overhead lighting and internal textile wall-hangings The first of these will be our joint Monday-Friday 10am-4pm to prevent the sounds of a hundred meeting with the Trollope Society Thursdays 10am-7pm (term time only) musicians bouncing straight back on Wednesday19th February next Saturdays 12noon-4pm (term time only) from four brick walls. Those original year, admission price £7.00 This will plans, for what it was hoped the take place at the recently refurbished Admission is free and open to all. district of Ancoats would become, Friends Meeting House. included images of what we would Group guided tours of the exhibition now cynically call the usual suspects Whilst this venue enjoys excellent can be arranged by contacting - architectural perspectives of shops, public transport links, car drivers Louise Clennel tel 0161 247 3333 bars and restaurants mostly including should bear in mind that the city’s email: [email protected] http:// open-air piazzas. The redundant, and parking meters now operate until www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk/ dramatically derelict, Georgian and 8.00 pm every evening.

3 DOBROYD: A Tale of Love, with a character like the Maison design basis for the principal rooms Carrée in Nîmes, a separate building is that of a central circulation space, Tragedy and Ambition elevated above the urban space the Saloon, from which all the main The story of Dobroyd Castle, built by around it. The castle massing is owner’s rooms are accessed. John Fielden (1822-93), millionaire designed to emphasise the principal mill owner, is that of both a love story accommodation with the tower The Saloon, at the heart of the and a tragedy. Ruth Stansfield was behind the porch projection and design is the most opulent space a weaver in one of the Fielden mills the strength of the vice spiral stair and is reached from the porch via and John Fielden fell in love with to the left of the entrance corbelled the vestibule. It has a bifurcated her. The story goes that she agreed to marry him if he built her a castle and they were married in 1857. It seems the castle was a long time in gestation, taking three years to build and the couple took up residence in 1869. It was a big household with five maids, a footman, a porter, a groom, a coachman, a gardener and a butler. However, it seems that the increasingly intense social and public life of John led to estrangement and Ruth went to live in the Swiss chalet on the estate. It is said that in her unhappiness she took to alcohol and died (officially of jaundice) in 1877 aged fifty. Eight months later John married Ellen Mallinson and they shared their life together at Dobroyd but also at Grimston Park Estate, near Tadcaster in Yorkshire, acquired by John in his move to become a country gentleman.

Dobroyd was built at a cost of £71,589 to a design by John Gibson, then an architect of national stature. Gibson had designed the National Westminster Hall, (1862) for the bank, in Bishopgate, London, and the Church of St Margaret, Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, (1860). Ground Floor plan of Dobroyd Castle (top) and detail of the Slave Trade His other buildings locally include the Tympanum: Slaves with slave master, drawings by Frank Williams, 2013. listed Town Hall, Todmorden, (1875), and the elegant Unitarian Church, from the first floor. On the façades (1869). The Castle was designed to the east and west the main block on two axes, one running east-west breaks forward of the service wing. and the other north-south through Overlooking the west lawn there are the tower and entrance. The formal large bay windows on both ground entrance to the Castle is on the east and first floors with virtually floor to façade through the porch at the ceiling windows. There is no sense foot of the rather forbidding tower. of heavy base and piano nobile, The architectural style is neither perhaps that would have been a convincingly fortified nor pleasantly conceit too far for John Fielden. The domestic. There is no Norman windows are all of similar proportion revival as at Penrhyn in North Wales with sliding sashes and are very nor clear domestic character as large. As Pevsner says ‘The windows, with Lutyens' Castle Drogo, in fact however, have a typically Victorian the detail and the style externally shape : straight heads connected with could be described as thuggish and the jambs by quarter circles ‘. heavy without any of the quality to John Gibson: architect of Dobroyd be found in the Todmorden Town Considering the plan of the Castle Castle, from 'The Builder' 1870. Hall. The latter is Roman in feel (see sketch of ground floor) the

4 stair which would not be amiss and the servants’ stair. On both levels the railway in the valley. So John in a cinema and includes column the principal rooms are fairly simply Fielden was able to drive in his supports of Derbyshire marble, designed with attractive fireplaces, coach, or possibly ride on horseback, and there is a magnificent fireplace (some of which have disappeared) from the mills in the valley up to his on the axis of the stair with mirror with decorative cornices, and very castle home some 230 feet above. To over-mantel. This really is an well lit by the large windows. the east, presumably still within the attractive space, very well lit from the glazed roof light with oak board floor and great solid oak doors to all the rooms off this space: the dining room; drawing room; breakfast room; billiard room and down the corridor the master’s own room.

The door openings to these rooms have a relieving arch above with a carved panel in the tympanum, each representing an activity in the cotton manufacturing business. (See the sketch of the Slave tympanum). The column capitals too have arts and craft style carvings depicting country scenes in the nineteenth century. The first floor of the saloon has an encircling gallery logically served by the bifurcated stair, and twin column supports springing from the solid balustrade and with double arches The ancillary buildings include the then estate, a model farm was built over. The transition from square to stable block with its own tower and with farm buildings round a courtyard the circle of the roof light is managed courtyard on the axis of the drive, and houses for the farm workers. well with squinch arched areas in the walled garden to the east, and At present the condition of these the corners. The first floor of the the gardener or groom’s house buildings is not good. saloon is as rich as the ground floor to the extreme north east with its but also has the sturdy oak doors garden. In an attempt to illustrate the Dobroyd Castle was listed Grade II in to the surrounding main bedrooms. disposition of these buildings and a 1966 because: The gallery leads round the back of large service court, a sketch plan is • it is an impressive country house the wall enclosing the upper part of included (above) to show the garden built in local materials, has a the stair to the corridor leading to the as it might have been and the long distinctive castellated style, occupies access to the servants’ bedrooms drive which crossed the canal and a prominent hilltop position and was built by a local mill-owning family; • the interior, particularly the entrance hall, is architecturally and materially opulent; • the series of Caen stone tympana have particular historic interest for the way they represent the process of cotton production.

The castle has gone through an amazing range of educational uses. The Home Office bought it in 1942 for £10,000 and it became an approved school for up to 80 boys. These lads were taught gardening and building skills and worked in the community as well as at Dobroyd. In 1979 the school closed but reopened as a privately run school for 20 boys with emotional and behavioural problems. It closed in 1989. The castle was bought in 1995 by the monks of the Dobroyd Castle: the saloon lantern: photograph Frank Williams 2013 New Kadampa Tradition for £320,000

5 Heretical Histories The source of his information (or misinformation) must therefore be Part 1. Lane and Alley: The assumed to be Peter B Alley. Although Partnership that Never Was? the claim that had And it came to pass that been a pupil of P B Alley rather than did enter into partnership with Peter Richard Lane was withdrawn in the Bradshaw Alley under the style of Manchester press a few days after Lane and Alley, for thus it is written publication of Darbyshire’s book, and by and so too is was not included in Alley’s subsequent it written in The Times obituary of Manchester Guardian obituary, Alfred Waterhouse, and in The Grove numerous biographical entries for Dictionary of Art. Alfred Waterhouse still continue to maintain that he was articled to Lane For over a century the Lane/Alley and Alley. partnership has formed a cornerstone of Manchester’s architectural history, The alternative (and perhaps more a fundamental truth beyond doubt. plausible) version of events is And yet there has still to be found revealed in two letters hidden in the any contemporary evidence for the correspondence columns of the existence of such a partnership. (See Manchester City News. Published in Clare Hartwell - Making Manchester, January 1898, immediately following Dobroyd Castle from the East p.33). Significantly, the contract notices the publication of 'An Architect’s inviting tenders for building work - Experiences', these indicate that for use as a Buddhist residential the classified advertisements that while P B Alley was employed as college and meditation centre. After appeared in the Manchester Guardian an assistant by Richard Lane during 12 years the centre closed and was - were always published by Richard the 1840s, he never became Lane’s in need of much repair. In 2008 Lane in his sole name. partner. The first letter, by John Lowe, Dobroyd was bought for £2.1 million Richard Lane’s pupil and eventual by Robinwood Activity Centres for This continued throughout the 1840s, successor, reads as follows: tuition to primary school children. realistically the only time that a Under Robinwood’s care it is in good partnership between the two men 'Sir - Permit me to correct an error use and adequately maintained could have existed. Peter Alley was which appeared in the paragraph although the stable block is in a poor born in 1811. Thus, when Richard relative to Mr Darbyshire's new book state and the walled garden is hardly Lane commenced his architectural 'An Architect's Experiences' which used. English Heritage have allowed practice in Manchester in 1822 he appeared in the Manchester City News a number of temporary buildings and was but ten years old. In 1833 he was of Saturday last. As it mentions Mr P training structures which provide a recorded as attending classes at the B Alley (now residing at Southport) I full programme of activities for up to Mechanics Institution and even in 1840 may state that Mr Alley was in 1844 an 800 children each week on two and would have been under thirty. assistant in Mr Richard Lane's offices three day courses. and shortly afterwards started practice Directory entries indicate that by 1850 in Manchester with whom Mr Alfred The two visits made to the Castle Peter B Alley had commenced practice Darbyshire was a pupil. Mr Alfred have been of primary importance on his own account with offices in Waterhouse (now RA) and the late Mr in sensing the architectural quality, Cross Street, later moving to Prince’s Popplewell Pullan FRIBA together with ambience and conservation of Court, off Market Street, Manchester. myself were contemporary pupils in the the whole. Flexibility of use, and In 1855 he took Alfred Darbyshire as office of Mr Richard Lane, architect. A new uses, within the constraints of an articled pupil at Prince’s Court and few years afterwards Mr R Lane retired maintenance of the architectural it was in this office that the work was from business and it was purchased and historic character is the key ‘prosaic but lucrative,’ including the and carried on by myself for upwards to successful conservation of our design of monumental cotton mills at of twenty-two years at the same heritage and in particular Dobroyd Narva, Estonia. Despite claims to the offices in Chapel Walks, Manchester, Castle. contrary, Alfred Darbyshire never in until the erection of the now existing fact worked in the Chapel Walks office Guardian Assurance Building. JOHN http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb. of Richard Lane. LOWE. 15 January 1898 ancestry.com/~todmordenandwalsden/ johnfielden.htm Thus the supposed partnership A letter published the following between Lane and Alley noted by week, signed 'Set Square', generally Frank Williams October 2013 Alfred Darbyshire in his book, 'An supported Lowe’s recollection of Architect’s Experiences', published in events but was in parts obscurely Frank Williams is a member of the 1897, relates to events of half a century phrased, as follows: Victorian Society. Until his retirement before; events which were outside Frank was a conservation architect. Darbyshire’s personal experience. Sir, - Mr Lowe's letter in your last

6 issue is partially true and partly making this claim, Colvin lacked description and plate illustration of (unintentionally doubtless) misleading. ready access to the vast wealth of Lane’s design (below). Unusually, As one who knows, I may say that information now made available this was stated as being in the 'Italian it was not 'shortly' but many years through the internet. An examination style', a style far removed from the afterwards (certainly nine at least) of a wider range of contemporary 'Greek Revival' style for which Richard that Mr P B Alley started individual sources now suggests that Richard Lane is better known. practice at Prince's Court. The other Lane’s designs for a Public Hall at statements in your editorial notes are Wigan were indeed fully implemented Construction was completed by substantially correct. I am unwilling to and, further, that the building survived October 1853 when the Mechanics' take up valuable time and space over until the 1970s. Institution (which was to occupy the a matter so purely personal, but in this building for over thirty years) held an particular instance it seems desirable In April 1852 The Builder reported: inaugural soirée. A later description, that the details should be, once for all. 'The committee to carry out the fully in accord with the plans of 1852, SET SQUARE, Manchester. erection of the proposed public hall recorded that the Public Hall contained at Wigan have unanimously chosen the Mechanics' Institute, Library and However, one mystery remains - the plans drawn by Mr R Lane of News-rooms, and two large rooms who was 'Set Square,' if not Peter Manchester, architect.' Tenders were adapted for concerts, balls, or public Bradshaw Alley? returned on 22 July and on 11 of meetings. [Worrall’s Wigan and District August 1852 Nathaniel Eckersley Esq, Directory 1881]. Part 2. Wigan Public Hall, 62 King mayor of Wigan, laid the corner stone Street, Wigan: Richard Lane, of a new Public Hall in King Street. The When the Mechanics' Institute vacated architect following month the Civil Engineer and the building is unclear. Wigan Town 'The Market (sic) Hall at Wigan, for Architect'sJournal published a detailed Trail suggests that the architectural which Lane’s designs were reported to have been adopted in the Builder xi 1853 p327, was not in fact built.'. Howard Colvin: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600 -1840. (Third Edition 1995)

It is generally considered that Colvin’s Dictionary of British Architects provides the definitive list of works by Richard Lane. The exclusion of a specific building for which there is documentary evidence is, therefore, particularly unusual. However, in

Richard Lane's Public Hall, Wigan in the Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 1852 7 practice of Heaton Ralph and Heaton Paul started by discussing decorative terrace on top. It was surrounded by a had some involvement in 1898 but railings, first used at St Paul’s Cathedral covered walkway which provided a refuge gives no further details. By 1905 the but only becoming ubiquitous during from the rain, as well as the crowds, for Public Hall was the property of Messrs the Victorian period. He saw railings as those who could afford the entrance fee. Roger and Rennick, and had been symbolic of the boundary between the The concept of pavilions was taken to converted into publishing offices for sea and the man-made environment of its extreme by Peregrine Birch with the the Wigan Examiner. At some stage the town. The promenades thus created Brighton Pavilion, built in 1893 with the the ground-floor frontage was also (Blackpool’s in 1870) were promoted as aim of attracting winter visitors. Pavilions altered to incorporate shop units on health-giving and became extremely introduced an element of frivolity to the each side of the original main entrance crowded, with their use highly ritualised. health-giving aspects of resorts. doorway. Railings could, however, also be markers of exclusion, for example by delineating Iron-and-glass structures also appeared The newspaper closed in May/ private parks. within the resort towns. Blackpool’s June 1961 after which the building competitor, Southport, acquired a huge seemingly remained unoccupied until Moving on to piers, Paul explained how Winter Gardens in 1874, incorporating its demolition in the 1970s. Rodney these evolved from utilitarian landing a concert hall and a large glasshouse. House, a modern office block, now stages or breakwaters, which were already Blackpool’s own Winter Gardens, built by stands on the site. Photographs being used for recreation by the early Thomas Mitchell (1877) with a 140 foot of the 1960s and 1970s (www. 19th century. The first ornamental pier -high dome and a 3000-seat concert hall, wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo) was Brighton’s Chain Pier, built in 1823 appealed to a lower class of visitors than show the building in its last years. on the suspension bridge principle. It Southport’s, although it still charged for Notwithstanding a century of pollution, was constructed on wooden piles and admission. The town had recently been the later alterations, and a general later collapsed. Blackpool’s first pier (the incorporated as a borough and many air of dilapidation, the building still current North Pier) was built in 1863 by of the investors in the project sat on the retained a quality of monumental Eugenius Birch, with ironwork supplied by council. The complex was opened with grandeur not immediately apparent in Robert Laidlaw & Co. Like all such piers it much ceremony, including a torchlight the plate illustration. It was a building charged for admission. The second pier procession to which the mayors of 68 of considerable originality, and one (the South Jetty, now the Central Pier) towns were invited. certainly worthy of inclusion in any list of Richard Lane’s known works.

Neil Darlington September 2013

Until his retirement, Neil Darlington was an architect in private practice for almost forty years. He is a contributor to Historic Scotland’s on-line database, the ‘Dictionary of Scottish Architects,’ and for the past fifteen years has been researching the lives of architects working in Greater Manchester between 1820 and 1940.

MANCHESTER GROUP - EVENT REVIEWS Blackpool: a Victorian Iron World, Paul Dobraszczyk 11 April 2013 YHA Paul Dobraszczyk’s talk on the significance of cast iron in Victorian seaside resorts focused on Blackpool, Blackpool Pier from Porter's Guide to Blackpool, Fleetwood, Lytham, 1870 which by the end of the 19th century was built in 1868 to siphon off the poorer Seaside ironwork in Blackpool reached was exceeded in size only by Brighton. patrons, with a charge of 1d instead of its zenith in the Blackpool Tower (1891-4, Having grown from nothing, faster than 2d. The ironwork was from the same Maxwell & Tuke), modelled on the Eiffel the textile towns, it exemplified manufacturer and the similarity of the Tower. Its ironwork is surprisingly utilitarian the influence of the railways in bringing the scrollwork in the seating helped to give although the crown appears ornamental masses to the coastal resorts, of which Blackpool a coherent image. from a distance. Among its many features 106 were recognised by 1900. Previously was a circus whose floor could be filled the seaside had played a secondary role It was not long before pavilions were with water for aquatic events. The Tower to the spas, nearly all inland, which were added and in 1874 Blackpool’s North Pier has always been emblematic of Blackpool, patronised mainly by the leisured classes. acquired one in Indian style, with a roof but it also symbolised hope for the working 8 classes that there was an escape from increased the range of designs headers of the ancestral pile, perhaps? drudgery. It was the first of six such enhancing Longbottoms' ability to Longbottoms don't undertake projects in the country and the only one to respond to the specifications of structural, load bearing work, as Simon succeed. conservation architects, councils and explained; they do what they know homeowners wanting to preserve the and know what they do. A formula that Paul estimated that perhaps a quarter of appearance of buildings. serves well. Victorian seaside ironwork survives today. Piers and their pavilions were notoriously Simon Gudgeon, the son of the current The initial purchase of cast iron is prone to destruction by fire, as happened managing director, assisted by his undeniably expensive but this material, with the original Blackpool North Pier foreman, conducted a guided tour of properly installed and maintained, pavilion in the 1920s. However, the bulk the Bridge Foundry premises. outlasts cheaper alternatives by many of the losses have been due to the decline We donned safety glasses to watch years. of the seaside resort and the desire to two young men carry out the traditional modernise. Examples are the Winter casting process. Their jeans and sweat Thank you to Simon and colleagues Gardens in Southport (demolished) and in shirts seemed out of place. Moleskin for giving the Victorian Society the Blackpool (rebuilt in the 1920s), and all the trousers, flat caps and hob-nail boots chance to see products being made in seaside towers apart from Blackpool’s. It would not have been anachronistic. a way that the Victorians would have is the present generation’s responsibility to Green sand - black with coal dust and known and providing a fascinating preserve what is left. slightly tacky to the touch - was packed insight into the work of this traditional round a wooden pattern of one half of firm. It's impossible to visit Holmfirth Roger Barton April 2013 the form set in a wooden flask. Each without some mention of Last of the pattern was removed and the two Summer Wine and, after knocking the flasks were matched together, one o green sand off our boots, the group Gutters and Gulleygrates with top of the other, ready for the pouring repaired to Compo's Cafe for fish and Simon Gudgeon, 8 May 2013 'Longbottoms are a specialist of red-hot molten metal. During the chips. Pensioners' portions all round. manufacturer and supplier of Cast tour we were shown machinery Iron Pipes and Fittings for Rainwater used for casting different products, Paula Moorhouse June 2013 and Soil drainage systems. We more modern and mechanised, but have maintained traditional methods everything was an anticlimax after the Stitch and Stone: the collaboration of manufacture in our foundry at spectacle of the pouring of glorious, between six leading Victorian Holmfirth, West Yorkshire for nearly glowing, liquid iron. Minutes later, a dull architects and the Leek Embroidery one hundred years.' grey gutter shape was pulled from a Society, Dr Brenda King , scattered pile of black sand. 19 June 2013 YHA This was Brenda’s third talk to the Manchester Group: ongoing research into Thomas and Elizabeth Wardle and their impact on the town of Leek in the later years of the nineteenth century. This latest chapter, on the relationship between the Leek Embroidery Society and leading architects of the day, has, under Brenda’s scholarship, been subjected to greater scrutiny than before, uncovering and documenting many pieces hidden away in church vestries and furthering understanding of the working practices involved in the provision of church furnishings at a seminal point in Anglican Church Manchester Group visit to Longbottoms, May 2013, photograph Mark Watson history. Spurred on by the Ecclesiology Movement and the demand for That's the description from the on-line Other areas of the foundry complex suitable and appropriate textiles for catalogue. It's not the most glamorous house the stocks of rainwater pipes, Anglican worship centred on the business but one that survives in this gutters and gulleygrates, the wooden altar, Leek produced church textiles age of plastic and quick fixes because patterns ready for use in casting and of a distinctive character within the of Longbottoms' expertise and the scale drawings. Simon pointed out framework of arts and crafts principles adherence to traditional manufacturing the 300 patterns of gutter stock, the and the requirements of the liturgy. methods. decorated hoppers. Of course, there The embroideries often utilised locally are hundreds of standard patterns designed fabrics and silk threads, The firm started manufacturing in in the catalogue, but how satisfying important historic documents in 1919. The incorporation of the larger to have a personal design made themselves, and were stitched by firm of Sloan and Davidson of Leeds up - a coat of arms on the rainwater highly skilled needlewomen to designs 9 provided by architects including G G was incorporated into the City of This was enlarged by John Lowe in Scott Jnr, R Norman Shaw, John D Manchester in 1904. 1863 and reordered in the 1970s, with Sedding and Gerald Horsley, drawn removal of the gallery, replacement of to the town and surrounding area to The tour started with a 1927 building, the pews with seats and relocation of reorder, restore or build new churches. Withington Public Library, designed the organ (which Felix Mendelssohn Given the convention of providing altar by the City architect Henry Price. We once played). It still has two Walter furnishings in sets for each of the four later saw an earlier example of his Pearce windows, one depicting the church seasons (including frontals, work, the Public Baths (1911), in a young Queen Victoria – one of only super frontals, burses, pulpit falls et mixed style incorporating elements of two stained-glass windows in the al) the number of pieces involved art nouveau and arts and crafts, and country to do so. is considerable. Today, many are featuring ceramic work and stained cherished and cared for by dedicated glass inside. There were separate We are very grateful to David for parishioners in full knowledge of their entrances for men and women but keeping us stimulated with his local and national significance but no segregation into first and second enthusiasm and knowledge. We took some are unappreciated and at risk of class; the superintendent’s flat was away with us notes written for a longer decommissioning, damp environments upstairs. Both buildings are still used tour by Louise Kane, which can be and inappropriate storage. Leek, then, for their original purpose, but the future found on https://sites.google.com/site/ provides a snapshot of many Victorian of the baths is uncertain as it is to be withingtonhistory/guided-tour. and Edwardian church textiles across superseded by a new baths at Hough the land. These pieces, hidden from End. The Civic Society is trying to find Roger Barton August 2013 view, many well over a century old, are ways of keeping the building open. textile relics recognized by a minority Leek Churches and Embroideries as worthy of care and conservation. Many of the other buildings on the with Dr Brenda King, 16 August Whilst they remain outside the tour have had a change of use. We 2013. museum sector they are at potential saw two of the three banks that once This trip, the first by coach for several risk but their location within the existed in Withington: the Manchester years, took members to the Leek interiors for which they were designed and County Bank (Mills & Murgatroyd, Embroidery exhibition and several must be maintained and a mechanism 1890; Grade II) is still a bank (branch of the churches housing work by established to ensure their long-term of NatWest) but Barclays Bank (1904) the Leek Embroidery Society. We survival in situ. Brenda’s talk and the is now a bar. Withington’s pubs have started at St Edward’s Church, Leek exhibition ‘The Extraordinary Leek fared a little better. The Red Lion (C14-17, with chancel by G E Street, Embroidery Society’ at the Nicholson (over 200 years old; Grade II), Albert 1867; Grade II*). Street was also Museum and Art Gallery in Leek Hotel (1820s; oldest building in ‘village’ responsible for the pulpit, stalls, lectern during the summer of 2013 establish centre), Victoria Hotel (built by Hydes’ and screen, while the glass was the credentials of church textiles as in 1905), Orion (named after a ship) mostly by Morris & Co. However, our worthy candidates for further enquiry and Turnpike are still in business, focus was on the church’s collection and conservation. but the White Lion (1880) is now a of textiles. Brenda King gave us supermarket. The conversion has an introduction to the Society’s Beryl Patten August 2013 been done sensitively, preserving work, represented in churches by much of the interior. As regards altar hangings, pulpit cloths, chalice An Afternoon Walk around churches, St Cuthbert’s RC Church veils, burses and other furnishings Withington with David Rydeheard, (W T Gunson & Son, 1881; extended advocated by the Ecclesiologists. 13 July 2013 1902) is still in use but the associated (The Society produced much A party of over 30 Victorian Society school is not; the Methodist Church domestic work as well.) Most of the and Withington Civic Society members (1865) has been much altered inside Society’s embroideries were worked overcame the torpor induced by a very and has lost its Sunday School, while on tusser silk printed at the Leek warm day to join this walk led by David the Primitive Methodist Church (1891) works of Thomas Wardle, who had Rydeheard, leader of the Heritage is now an adult learning centre. Other done so much to promote the use of Group of the Civic Society. David buildings that we saw included the this material. The underlying printed explained that Withington expanded Public Hall and Institute (1861), still in patterns formed the basis for the from an agricultural village (as shown use as a private members’ club, and embroidery, the silk thread of which on the 1840s tithe maps that we were William John Priday’s forge (1881), was specially dyed at Leek. all given) to an urban area during redeveloped as flats. the Victorian era. Wilmslow Road, A few doors away is the Nicholson which had existed from mediaeval As a concession to the weather, the Institute (William Larner Sugden, 1884; times, became a turnpike and was walk was truncated and ended with an Grade II*), where the embroidery greatly improved. Large new houses unprecedented double tea stop. We exhibition was based. We had an were built to the east of it and smaller first called in at the Fire Station (1931), introductory talk by Cathryn Walton, ones to the west, and when Palatine which was holding an open day and who helped set it up and is writing a Road was built as a turnpike in 1863 offering refreshments. The official book on the Leek embroiderers. She it too acquired fine villas, many of tea stop followed at St Paul’s Church explained that Joshua Nicholson, which have been lost. Withington (Hayley & Brown, 1841) next door. director of the silk company Brough,

10 We saw more embroidery at St Leonard’s, Ipstones (Grade II*), designed by G G Scott Jnr. Started around the turn of the nineteenth century, the church was completed in 1877 by Scott. In 1902 Gerald Horsley built the chancel and installed a striking rood screen, which became framed by paintings by J Eadie Reid in 1917. Introducing us to the textiles on display, Cath Hayes said a lot of pieces had been discarded in the 1960s, possibly because they were worn out.

We finally returned to Leek to see the innovative Arts and Crafts church of All Saints, Compton (Richard Norman Shaw, 1887; Grade I), with a remarkably wide nave, superb fittings by W R Lethaby and Robert Edgar, chancel wall and ceiling paintings by Gerald Horsley and windows by Morris & Co, including a large Burne- Jones east window (1923). The large collection of textiles at the church was on display and included an altar frontal of 9 panels, designed from Indian patterns by Thomas Wardle Jnr.

Manchester Group members at the Nicholson Institue in Leek, August 2013 We were very grateful not only to the speakers and leaders for a most Nicholson & Hall, had the Institute built well-known architects such as J D informative day but also to Mark as a way of compensating for missed Sedding, R N Shaw, G G Scott Jnr, Watson for his usual impeccable education in his youth. He and the G E Street and Gerald Horsley, and arrangements. architect were members of SPAB and also Wardle’s son Thomas Wardle in accordance with its principles the Jnr and his brother-in-law George Roger Barton August 2013 C17 house in front, Greystones (Grade Y Wardle, who became manager of II*), was preserved; Nicholson lived Morris & Co. It is often not known who Lost Libraries of Liverpool: the in it before moving to Highfield Hall designed particular pieces. In addition Buildings of Thomas Shelmerdine (demolished) next door. We toured to the designers and embroiderers, the with John Tiernan, 21 September the Institute, which was and still is a Society’s work involved craft workers 2013 library-cum-art gallery. The library such as woodblock carvers and dyers, This second coach tour of the today is very different from the original, about whom very little is known. season, led by John Tiernan, retired which was non-fiction only with books Assistant Director of Liverpool’s in stacks (still there today) accessible From Leek we moved on to libraries, started by viewing the only to the librarians. The School Cheddleton, where an efficiently £50M refurbishment of Liverpool of Science and Technology (also organised lunch in the community Central Library behind the mostly Sugden; 1898) is next door. Although centre was followed by a visit to St unaltered classical façades of in a plainer style than the Institute, with Edward’s Church (Grade II*). Barbara the Brown Library and the Picton its domed tower and Flemish gables, it Hutchinson, curator of the textiles, Reading Room. The 1950s and has some fine pargeting. explained that the mediaeval building 1970s buildings built behind those was restored by George Gilbert facades have been demolished Once inside the exhibition, Cathryn Scott Jnr in 1863-4 while Wardle and in their place is now a visually explained that the members of the was churchwarden. The focus was stunning, asymmetrical domed Leek Embroidery Society were all changed from pulpit to altar and a multi-level atrium of laminated oak women in church congregations who rood screen was added. The church and glass designed by Austin- had some connexion with Thomas features stained glass by Morris & Smith:Lord. The upper level leads Wardle’s wife Elizabeth, the founder. Co with designers including Burne- to a roof terrace offering views Those women who were traceable Jones and Madox Brown. The over the city and the lower levels collaborations between Mrs Wardle link into the original historic library had professional, clerical or trade and the embroidery designers started interiors. These include the Grade backgrounds and none were ordinary here, and there were further displays II* Hornby Library dating from 1906 mill workers. The designers included of embroidery in the church. 11 designed by Thomas Shelmerdine has an unusual octagonal tower concluded that the failure was due to and housing Richard Hornby’s provoking much discussion as to lack of investment and leadership. bibliographic collection gifted to the the function of the miniature flying city. Shelmerdine was born in 1845 buttresses. Thomas’s interest in the arts seems and was Liverpool Borough architect to have started with a long visit from 1871 to 1914. In common with The tour ended with the day’s to Italy in his early twenties. He many other Edwardian libraries saddest Shelmerdine sights, Lister acquired his first painting in 1847 that he designed for Liverpool, the Drive library of 1902 closed for ten and started to commission works. Hornby boasts an elaborate copper years and barely visible through He evidently had good taste, as all Art Nouveau plaque commemorating dense overgrown shrubbery and the nine works he loaned for the its opening. The huge circular domed the disused Everton library (1896) 1857 exhibition ended up in major 1879 Picton Reading Room with known to locals as ‘The Jewel on the galleries. A meeting in 1851 with three tiers of bookshelves rising to Hill’. Mark Watson’s photograph of it Holman Hunt started a life-long 30 feet owes an obvious debt to the on the cover of the March 2013 The friendship, which included the reading room of the British Museum Victorian captures its decayed glory. commissioning of The Awakening made by modifying S. Smirke’s Conscience (later modified at original Great Court – a debt made David Astbury September 2013 Thomas’s behest) and The Children’s manifest by the black plaque to Holiday (including five of Thomas’s Antonio Panizzi on the outside of the Thomas Fairbairn (1823-1891), children). Thomas later had his Liverpool building. the Manchester Art Treasures portrait painted by Holman Hunt and On the tour of Shelme.rdine’s branch Exhibition and his patronage of bought The Scapegoat. libraries we first visited the 1902 the pre-Raphaelites with Richard Toxteth example which has recently Byrom, 21 October 2013 Thomas’s involvement with the had a £1M restoration. It is a minor Richard Byrom followed up his 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition in classic of the Edwardian Baroque fascinating talk about William Manchester arose from his meeting Fairbairn in 2011 with an equally the art collector John Dean at the interesting account of the life of 1853 Dublin Exhibition. Their aim was his second son Thomas (1823-91). to present a chronology of painting. Their lives were very different and They were astonishingly successful in Thomas’s was more contradictory, a raising money, obtaining guarantors mixture of successes and failures. (of whom Thomas was chairman) and procuring exhibits (there were Thomas initially followed in his 16,000). They gave themselves a father’s footsteps as an engineer. 50-week deadline, but all was ready in Instead of university he was sent time for the opening by Prince Albert. to the Millwall shipyard, which was The façade was designed by Edward in trouble in the 1840s (it closed Salomons and interior decoration in 1844). He later assisted with was by J G Crace. There was a total the construction of the pioneering of 136,000 visitors, including Queen Britannia Bridge, an engineering Victoria and Prince Albert. success but tainted by Thomas’s ‘wheeler dealing’ over competitive This success was not initially tendering. His ruthless streak maintained; three subsequent was again evident in his role in the projects failed, including one for collapse of the 1852 engineers’ a free art gallery in Manchester. Shelmerdine's Kensington Library, strike. Thomas and his younger However, Thomas was then invited Liverpool 1890/1897 brothers became owners of Fairbairn to be a commissioner of the 1862 style, a grand entrance flanked by & Sons when William retired from the London Exhibition. Again this was two hooded Venetian windows. It business in 1854, but his brothers very successful, with the building also has its copper Art Nouveau backed out and left Thomas the erected in 11 months and 29,000 plaque commemorating the opening sole owner. He himself lost interest exhibits displayed. Thomas was now by Andrew Carnegie, although it was and moved to London in 1861. The mixing with the highest echelons of not financed by him. Sefton Park company was floated on the Stock society. Surprisingly, he turned down library, half-timbered Tudor/bethan Exchange in 1864 and continued to the offer of a knighthood, although he on a stone base, was the gift of fulfil challenging contracts. However, later inherited his father’s baronetcy. Carnegie. Garston library 1909 was Thomas’s attempts at bribery led to Thomas continued to have business listed Grade II only last year. It is a loss of orders for the Great North interests, in partnership with his large and airy barrel-vaulted room of Scotland Railway, and in 1865 friend John Pender. They were flanked by two smaller equivalents. locomotive building ended. The firm involved in the failure of the Consol- Kensington library of 1890 and went into liquidation in 1875. Richard idated Bank, but their participation extended in 1897 (Grade II) is also a Byrom had been unable to find any in the Atlantic telegraph project was large and well-lit space. The exterior evidence of external pressures and much more successful. Thomas

12 was a director of cable-laying and A variety of attempts to save the Andrew will also show us some overseas telegraph projects and building came and went, and were of his own arts and crafts inspired at the time of his death controlled followed by a severe fire in 1999, woodwork. one-third of the world’s underseas leaving the building in a parlous cables. state. 1.45 pm to 4.30 pm YHA Potato Wharf, off Liverpool Road, Thomas’s family life also had its Purcell have been involved with the Castlefield Manchester M3 4NB share of misfortune. He married in Florrie since 2002 through initial 1848 and had nine children, but two feasibility work for the Merseyside Attendance at the AGM is free but there died young and two were deaf and Building Preservation Trust and the is a charge of £5 for the talk dumb (there is a beautiful sculpture Friends of the Florrie. The talk will No need to book in advance of them by Thomas Woolner). briefly discuss the history of the The family moved to successively Florrie and its significance, before The AGM agenda and nomination larger properties, culminating in looking at the inspiring community- form can be found on page 16 Brambridge House near Eastleigh, driven campaign to save it. Then we with 23 bedrooms, in 1866. However, will journey through the period of there was a serious fire there in dereliction and discuss some of the WEDNESDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2014 1872; Matthew Digby Wyatt was technical challenges encountered in An illustrated talk employed to rebuild. Thomas died bringing the building back to life. The Victorian Postal System and in 1891, soon after losing money Anthony Trollope through his stockbroker son Thomas Robert Chambers is an Associate with Julian Stray: Curator British Gordon Fairbairn, who had been with Purcell, working in Liverpool, the Postal Museum and Archive convicted of speculating with North-West and across North Wales. shareholders’ money. An AABC accredited conservation The Victorian era was witness to architect, he has delivered a range dramatic and far ranging changes Roger Barton October 2013 of high-profile projects across to the postal system in the UK. Not the country including, locally, St. only was Postal Reform introduced, George’s Hall in Liverpool and a whereby the cost was greatly MANCHESTER GROUP variety of projects at the Lady Lever reduced and simplified, but the 2013-2014 Events Art Gallery. sender became also responsible saturday 14 December 2013 for postage costs instead of the The booking form for the Xmas Event recipient. Such was the increase can be found on page 17 Christmas Excursion to Liverpool of the service that a centuries An Xmas Lunch and talk at the old system struggled to adapt. Lunch menu choices are on page 18 Florence Institute, Toxteth. The very necessary countrywide alterations and refinement were Our 2013 Christmas Celebration SATURDAY 25 JANUARY 2014 largely suggested and implemented will take place in Toxteth, Liverpool. by a body of Post Office Surveyors. We will assemble at Store Street, Annual General Meeting Possibly the most innovative of these below Piccadilly Train Station at followed by an illustrated talk men, certainly the most famous, was 9.15 am for departure by coach to 'Little Holland House' or 'Frank the novelist Anthony Trollope, a Post Liverpool at 9.30 am. Our first stop Dickinson and Me' with Andrew Office employee at the time. This at 10.30 am will be at Toxteth Park Richardson fascinating talk will cover elements Town Hall where we will have tea/ of postal history that touched coffee and biscuits and a talk on the Andrew first visited Little Holland everyone’s life; not least a growing Town Hall by Joshua Terry. At 11.45 House, lovingly built and furnished by state dependence on the railways, am we take the short walk to the the remarkable Frank Dickinson (1874- the introduction of a national Parcel 'Florrie' where we will have a tour 1961) and his wife, in 1983. Situated Post and the first appearance of the of the building from 12.00 to 12.30 in Carshalton Beeches, the house now familiar pillar box. pm. Lunch will take place between is a goldmine of original Arts and 1.00 and 2.30 pm. After lunch there Crafts features and paintings by Frank Julian Stray is Senior Curator at The will be a presentation on the history which Andrew has researched and British Postal Museum & Archive. He and conservation of the building recorded for this talk. The Grade II* is an authority on postal history, has by Rob Chambers. We depart for interior, created entirely by Dickinson written countless articles on the sub- Manchester at 4 pm. between 1902 and 1904, is inspired by ject and has authored books on mail the ideals of John Ruskin and William trains, Post Offices and the transport The Florence Institute is one of the Morris and contains Dickinson's of mail by road. earliest youth clubs in Britain, a paintings, hand-made furniture, purpose it served admirably for over furnishings, metalwork and carving. 6.15 for 6.30 pm at the a century before slum clearance Now in the care of Sutton Libraries, Friends Meeting House, and a diminishing local population the house is open to the public free 6 Mount St, Manchester M2 5NS: resulted in closure in the late 1980s. of charge but is relatively unknown. cost £7 13 tuesday 25 March 2014 An illustrated talk Lancashire to L.A : the Legacy of John Parkinson, Architect with Jamie Ryan-Ainslie: independ- ent researcher A joint event with the Manchester Modernist Society

John Parkinson (1861-1935) was a British-born architect who grew up in Scorton in Lancashire and was apprenticed to John Bradshaw in Bolton. Working for Bradshaw and attending the Bolton Mechanics Institute Parkinson was able to develop his skills in practical construction. At the age of 21 Parkinson moved to North America where he eventually made his name designing numerous public buildings, The move of mail from road to rail during the Victorian era. Last day particularly in Los Angeles in the late of the Louth-London mail coach, leaving Peterborough on the newly 19th and early 20th century, most opened Peterborough to Blisworth railway. 1845. Image: BPMA H1396 notably Los Angeles City Hall (1928) Peto, however, the fifth son of the from an early age to have reacted Jamie's talk will cover the develop- celebrated mid-Victorian public works against mid-Victorian business ment of Parkinson's career from the and railway contractor, Sir Samuel values and religion. He developed 1870s including his early years in Peto (1809-89) was to become an abhorrence of London and what Scorton and Bolton, work in Canada, widely accomplished in his own right he termed ‘the squalor and rush of Napa and Seattle in the 1880s and as an architect, interior designer, modern life’. His father had been the development of the firm in Los landscape gardener and collector, a patron of the arts where Harold Angeles up to his death in 1931. but is perhaps best remembered was to become an aesthete with a for his significant contribution to the sensitivity to art, a fastidiousness, Jamie has studied Parkinson's life development of the Italian School of a horror of vulgarity and a form of and architectural career for his Edwardian gardening at the start of aestheticised cosmopolitanism. Master's Degree in History, Film and the twentieth century. His perfectionism and concern to Television. Since then he has worked cultivate highly developed senses in broadcasting at the BBC and NHS Peto began his architectural training and faculties led him into an almost in 1871 with J. Clements before overriding obsession with good taste in Birmingham, where he currently moving to the workshops of Lucas and refinement, which deepened as lives. Brothers, both based in Lowestoft. he grew older. Later that year he was briefly in 7 pm for 7.15 pm YHA the offices of Lewis Karslake & Henry Avray Tipping considered Peto YHA Potato Wharf, off Liverpool Road, Mortimer in London. He joined to be the ‘British aesthete in pose, Castlefield Manchester M3 4NB George in partnership in 1876 at the appearance and voice’. This lecture Cost: £5.00 per person. age of 21, providing a direct entrée explores Peto’s architectural work into the London building world, - in particular his villa and garden No need to book in advance historically through Sir Samuel, and practice in the South of France - and contemporaneously through Harold’s his interior design work. older brothers Morton Kelsall and Professor Hilary J Grainger is a Dean WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2014 William Herbert, whose building of the London College of Fashion, An illustrated talk operations, Peto Brothers, were also University of the Arts, London, having Harold Peto: Architect, Garden to be of immense importance to the taught the history of architecture and Designer, Collector and Aesthete. development of George & Peto’s design for over thirty years at the with Hilary J Grainger practice. Chair of the Victorian Society Universities of Leeds, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Keele and Peto emerges as a highly significant Wolverhampton. She is a leading Harold Ainsworth Peto (1854-1933) is but hitherto overlooked figure in authority on Sir Ernest George and perhaps best known for his eighteen late nineteenth and early twentieth also on the architecture of British year partnership with the late century architecture and design. crematoria. Her book Death Victorian architect Sir Ernest George, Despite possessing his father’s Redesigned: British Crematoria, during which time they became one business acumen, Harold appears of the most sought after practices. History, Architecture and Landscape 14 was published in 2005 and The potato Wharf yha NEWSLETTERS BY EMAIL Architecture of Sir Ernest George was published by Spire Books Ltd in Our usual venue for talks in 2013-2014 Thank you to those members who late 2010. Hilary is the Chair of The will be the YHA, Potato Wharf, have agreed to receive the Manchester Victorian Society and a council Castlefield, Manchester M3 4NB (tel: Newsletter by email. This has allowed us member and Trustee of The 0161 839 9960) to reduce postage and copying costs. Cremation Society of Great Britain. Directions to the YHA by public If you lose your email copy or it 7 pm for 7.15 pm transport disappears from your computer a pdf YHA Potato Wharf, off Liverpool Road, of the Newsletter can now be found From Deansgate Castlefield or Castlefield Manchester M3 4NB on the Manchester page of Victorian Manchester Central (Metrolink) Cost: £5.00 per person. Society’s main site at victoriansociety. stations: turn right along Deansgate, org.uk/manchester/ as can the current then left along Liverpool Road as far as talks and visits. If you would like No need to book in advance Castlefield Hotel (also known as the Y to receive an email version of the club – note this is not our venue). There, Newsletter please email beryl.patten@ turn left along Potato Wharf. The youth SATURDAY 10 MAY 2014 hostel is on the left after you go under the virgin.net. An illustrated talk and visit railway bridge. This is approximately a Imperial Gothic: William Butterfield 700 yard walk. MANCHESTER GROUP and the Development of Colonial Ecclesiology From Piccadilly station: take a train The next Manchester Group with Alex Bremner to Deansgate or a tram to Manchester Newsletter will be published in Architectural Historian, University of Central then follow the above directions. April 2014. The next Events Card Edinburgh Alternatively, catch the number 3 free (June 2014 to October 2014) will be bus which runs every 10 minutes (the published in April 2013. In this talk Alex Bremner will consider last bus is 19.00) from the forecourt - get If you wish to make a contribution to the contribution William Butterfield off at the second stop on Quay Street the Newsletter, such as an article, made to the rise and development (after the Opera House). From there go news item or event review, please of Anglican church architecture back along Quay Street and right along email [email protected]. in Britain's empire during the late Lower Byrom Street to Liverpool Road. compiler of this Newsletter nineteenth century. He will discuss Turn right and proceed as above. This is Butterfield's colonial designs approximately a 600 yard walk. Disclaimer: You participate in events in the context of contemporary From : catch the at your own risk and neither the Society ecclesiological theory and the number 33 bus which runs every 20 nor its officers or servants accept any conditions, both social and material, minutes to the second stop on Liverpool liability of any kind whatsoever howsoever for which they were intended. Road (opposite the Science Museum). arising. The Victorian Society reserves What is revealed is an approach Then go back to the Castlefield Hotel the right to cancel, alter or postpone by Butterfield that consciously and follow the above directions. This is events if necessary. The Victorian Society engaged concerns over cultural and approximately a 200 yard walk. Currently is a Registered Charity No 1081435 environmental adaptation, leading to (December 2013) this bus is diverted and a Company Limited by Guarantee an experimental form of architecture owing to sewreage works. Registered in England No 3940996 that pushed the boundaries of Anglican architectural convention. From Oxford Road station: catch the number 2 free bus (times as for the Please note that buildings we visit may present a variety of hazards including Alex Bremner is Senior Lecturer in number 3 above) from the forecourt to uneven surfaces, stairs, low head heights, Architectural History at the University Liverpool Road (first stop only). From low lighting, building and demolition of Edinburgh. He specialises in the there follow the ­directions above. This is works. We would like all our events to be study of British imperial and colonial approximately a 400 yard walk. accessible to everyone, but there may be architecture, particularly during From Victoria station: catch the stairs or uneven surfaces which cannot the Victorian era, and has recently number 2 bus outside and get off at the be avoided, and long periods of walking or published a book with Yale University second stop outside the Great Northern standing. Press entitled Imperial Gothic: complex; continue down Deansgate, turn Religious Architecture and High right along ­Liverpool Road and follow the Should you have any questions about Anglican Culture in the British Empire directions as above. your ability to participate in an event, c.1840-1870 (2013). please contact us. Some of our events are 2 pm unsuitable for children. If you have any Venue: Saint Cross Church, special needs or ideas about how we can Clayton, improve our events, please let us know. Manchester M11 4UA Cost: £10 Remember to let us know if you change your email address.

15 Manchester Group of the Victorian Society

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Saturday 25 January 2014

1.45 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. YHA Potato Wharf, Castlefield, Manchester. M3 4NB

AGENDA 1. Apologies 2. Minutes of last meeting 3. Matters Arising 4. Membership Secretary’s report 5. Conservation report. 6. Treasurer’s report. 7. Chairman’s report. 8. Election of Officers and Committee. 9. AOB

All members are entitled to attend the AGM. Cost £5 to include refreshments and illustrated talk.

NOMINATION FORM FOR A COMMITTEE MEMBER:

NOMINEE Name of nominee: ......

Address: ......

......

Tel: ...... Email: ......

Nominee’s signature of acceptance...... date...... please give reasons for nominating this person to the Manchester Group Committee

......

......

Your contact details:

Name: ......

Address: ......

......

Tel: ...... Email: ......

Return to: The Secretary, Manchester Victorian Society, c/o , 57 Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3HY or bring along to the AGM.

16 Booking form : Manchester Victorian Society - Liverpool Xmas Lunch saturday 14 December 2013 A visit by coach to Toxteth to see the Florence Institute, "The Florrie", a recently restored Victorian Lads' Club. Lunch will take place at The Florrie followed by a presentation by Robert Chambers, conservation architect, on the history of the Florrie and the successful campaign to save it. Further details on page

Join the coach at Store Street under Piccadilly Station at 9.15am for a 9.30 am prompt departure.

Cost including three course Christmas lunch and coach travel from Manchester: £45.00 per person (excluding drinks).

CLOSING DATE FOR BOOKINGS: TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2013

First name...... Surname...... Address...... Postcode...... telephone numbers*...... *mobile number preferable - please switch on your mobile and bring with you to the event email address*...... *please add your email address if you have one, this will be used for confirmation of booking and receipt of payment

Names of others attending First name...... Surname......

First name...... Surname......

First name...... Surname...... Confirmation and travel arrangements will be sent in good time. Enclose your completed form, menu choices, a stamped self-addressed envelope and a cheque (if no email given) for £45.00 per person made payable to: The Victo- rian Society to: Mark Watson, 18 Thomas Telford Basin, Manchester M1 2NH. Tel 07831 267642 Disclaimer: You participate in Victorian Society events at your own risk and neither the Society nor its officers or servants accept any liability of any kind whatsoever, howsoever arising. The Victo- rian Society reserves the right to cancel, alter or postpone events if necessary. Victorian Society Manchester Group Committee Secretary email:[email protected]  

17 Manchester Victorian Society Christmas Lunch in Liverpool 14 December 2013

MENU CHOICES Please return one separate form for each attendee Forename…………………………………….Surname………………………………………...... STARTER (choose one and please tick your choice) Roast tomato and basil soup ( ) or Chicken liver parfait on toasted brioche with chilli jam ( ) or Smoked salmon with caper berries ( )

MAIN COURSE: CARVERY (choose one and please tick your choice) Roast turkey and stuffing ( ) or Roast rump of beef ( ) or Vegetarian option ( )

With roast potatoes, carrots, cabbage, parsnips gravy and condiments DESSERT (choose one and please tick your choice) Traditional Christmas Pudding served with Rum Sauce ( ) or Sherry trifle ( ) Followed by Coffee and Tea A bottle bar will be available – not included in the price of the Dinner. Please return your menu choices with your booking form and your cheque made payable to The Victorian Society.   Forename…………………………………….Surname………………………………………...... STARTER (choose one and please tick your choice) Roast tomato and basil soup ( ) or Chicken liver parfait on toasted brioche with chilli jam ( ) or Smoked salmon with caper berries ( )

MAIN COURSE: CARVERY (choose one and please tick your choice) Roast turkey and stuffing ( ) or Roast rump of beef ( ) or Vegetarian option ( )

With roast potatoes, carrots, cabbage, parsnips gravy and condiments DESSERT (choose one and please tick your choice) Traditional Christmas Pudding served with Rum Sauce ( ) or Sherry trifle ( ) Followed by Coffee and Tea A bottle bar will be available – not included in the price of the Dinner. Please return your menu choices with your booking form and your cheque made payable to The Victorian Society. 18