Heritage Impact Assessment

Land Adjacent to Road, , , HX4 0AJ

September, 2018

Job No. 18-056

Storah Architecture Ltd RIBA Chartered 46 Halifax Road T 01706 813214 Practice [email protected] Directors: J. David Storah Arch. Tech. Cert. Company Registered in OL14 5QG www.storah.com Richard A. Storah Dip. Arch. MA Cons. RIBA AABC SCA IHBC . No: 9547619 Heritage Impact Assessment: Land adjoining Stainland Road and Christ Church, Barkisland

1. Introduction This Assessment relates to the site adjacent off Stainland Road, Barkisland, Sowerby Bridge, HX4 0AJ. The site lies to the north of the Listed Building, Christ Church, and its graveyard. The church is listed Grade II. It is situated at NGR: SE054198. The site itself has no heritage designation and is considered by the WYAAS to be “Immediately North of listed church but no apparent direct archaeological implications.

The site (LP0049) was proposed as a new housing site for the proposed Local Plan. Following a decision to reduce the existing number of sites it was removed.

This statement considers the history and significance of the site and the listed church and the recommendation made by the LPA to remove it from consideration due to its heritage value. The report has been made by Christopher Mace, buildings archaeologist and Richard Storah RIBA. AABC. IHBC, conservation architect and historic buildings consultant.

1.1 Setting Barkisland is a linear settlement lying 1.6 km east of and 3.2km south of Sowerby Bridge in the Ryburn ward of the of . It is situated 5km to the south west of Halifax the administration centre of Calderdale. Historically Barkisland was in the West Riding of but now is within the Metropolitan County of .

The area lies in the South and its setting is typical of the region with hilltops formed by an upland plateau of millstone grit incised by steep-sided valleys or cloughs. The very tops of the hills are rough pasture of heather and grass whilst around each settlement there are fields of ‘improved’ pasture enclosed within stone wall boundaries. This landscape reflects the past economy of small farmsteads where a ‘dual economy’ was followed, with farming supplemented by domestic textile production. The Halifax area had been a centre of the worsted textile trade since the late 16th century, many of the more successful ‘woolstaplers’, merchants buying in wool to the area for production and clothiers, the main producers, had established themselves as yeomen, or minor gentry. Many of these had built substantial halls and become important landowners. The textile trade relied on communication by packhorse routes and later turnpikes along which settlement occurred with wayside inns and cottages for an increasing number of domestic textile industry workers and quarry workers of the easily exploitable millstone grits. The gritstone supplied the traditional building materials of the area.

2.0 Historic Background By the time of the first Ordnance Survey of the Barkisland area settlement patterns were well established. Branches of locally important turnpikes ran from the north east to the south west with linking roads forming a triangle near the Barkisland Free School to the west of the main settlement around Barkisland Hall. To the south of the village was the substantial estate of Howroyd Park. The layout of the

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village had been further affected by the enclosure of the area following the Enclosure Act of 1814.

By the early nineteenth century textile production had been largely mechanised and substantial mills had developed in the valley bottoms, although in some branches of textiles, notably worsted, domestic production remained until much later. Industrialisation had led to a dramatic increase in the region’s population. It also led to increased social unrest which some believed could be linked to the lack of church provision. Many ancient parishes in the North, including Halifax, were vast and already many had been subdivided into parochial chapelries based on the local townships. Barkisland lay in that of Ripponden, but the Church of St Bartholomew in the town could hold only a fraction of the estimated 12,000 people living in the area.

As already noted the question of the lack of church provision in areas of increasing population had become a concern and legislation had been passed to facilitate the establishment of new parishes, this could also be seen as an attempt to counter the growing number of Non-Conformist chapels. The Church Buildings Act of 1824, allowed local communities to seek financial aid in building new churches and the New Parishes Act of 1843 was an ‘Act to make better Provision for the Spiritual Care of populous Parishes.’

In 1852 a public appeal was made to raise the necessary funds for a new church in Barkisland. Grants were also sought from the Diocese of Ripon and the Church Buildings Commission and the following year work was begun. The site was a close called the School Field, donated by William Baxter. On the 6th of May 1854 the Halifax Courier reported the consecration of the new church ‘a very neat edifice, built from the design of Mr Mallinson, architect, of Halifax, in the early English style of Gothic’. In fact, Mallinson was a partner in the firm of Mallinson and Healey.

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This extract, taken from the 2nd series of the ordnance survey surveyed in 1892, shows the Church and the School of 1867-8 by Mallinson and Barber. Development is beginning in the immediate vicinity of the Church around the junction to the south and the Pinfold area.

Following the construction of the Christ Church, the area around the site was subject to development, with the village spreading up the hillside to infill around the church and school. This infilling has continued to date, with new housing located along and to the north of Stainland Road.

Google image showing expansion of the village. © Google 2018

The area to the south of the church is developed at a lower density, with the cricket club and housing and conversion and sub-division of buildings at Pinfold. The war memorial cross has also been erected at the junction of Saddleworth Road and Road. The church is now sited within the village context.

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Since the development of the church, trees are grown within the churchyard, which have reached maturity, screening the church from the north, south and east. This leaves only limited views into the site.

4.0 Significance

4.1 Introduction This section assesses the relative significance of the site and its key significance values. ‘Conservation Principles’ (English Heritage, 2008) sets out a range of heritage values that can be used to establish the significance of a building or place. These include evidential value (the physical aspects of a building that yield evidence about its past), historical value (the extent to which a building is associated with or illustrative of historic events or people), aesthetic value (includes design, visual, landscape and architectural value) and communal value (includes social and commemorative value and local identity). These values may be tangible, for example, the listed building’s grade or they may intangible, for example, the site’s association with a past event or group of people.

Significance is a concept for measuring the cultural value of a place, using judgement to assess the place and its different aspects in a hierarchy. The established levels of significance are: • Exceptional – important at national to international levels, reflected in statutory designations, such as Grade I listed buildings and scheduled ancient monuments. • High – important at regional or sometimes a higher level, e.g. Grade II listed buildings • Medium – important at a local level, and possibly at a regional level, for example for group value • Low – of no more than local value • Negative or intrusive features – features which in their present form detract from the value of the site.

4.2 Significance of the Site The church has significance as an example of mid-C19 church building at a time when the established church was seeking to retain a dominance over expanding nonconformist church building and to expand to cope with a rapidly developing population expansion in the region. It has historic significance within the community as a parish church, and has group value with the war memorial nearby. It is also an example of church building by Mallinson and Healey, architects of regional significance at the time. the church is considered to have High Significance contributing to the history and identity of the village.

The church is substantially screened by mature woodland. With no tower and only a small bellcote it sits discretely within the landscape, only substantially visible from Scamonden Road to the west. The church has little prominence within the idea landscape and offers little visual impact beyond its site. Although the landscape significance of the church could be enhanced by selective felling or

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woodland management it currently has low or no significance as a feature within the wider landscape as demonstrated by the photographs below.

5.0 Inclusion in the Proposed Local Plan The site adjacent to the north of Christ Church Barkisland was proposed for housing in the Calderdale Local Plan (LP Reference LP0049). The site was subsequently removed from consideration following a report prepared by the Council stating that ‘this area provides an important rural setting to the church’.

5.1 Comment on the Assessment Report The assessment report identifies ‘Key Views – from the junction of Stainland Road and Scammonden Road south and southeast across the site towards the listed church; (and) from Stainland Road south across the site towards the church’ as can be demonstrated by inspection of the site and in the photographs below, the church is screened from the north by a dense and mature belt of tree planting which obscures the building. There are no key views from this direction at the building is obscured by trees.

The report also identifies ‘Views northwards of the church along both Scammonden Road and Saddleworth Road, are important as well as glimpsed views through the trees along the roadside’. These are key views, though in this case although the rural setting of the church may be affected by housing sites to the south and east, though these remain within the proposed housing allocation.

Not discussed in the LPA’s assessment is the link between the church and the war memorial. The two have associative significance and there is the opportunity to enhance this by management and the restoration of vistas between the two. Views from the south and the links to the war memorial are considered to have be of medium significance which could be enhanced through management.

The WYAAS have consulted on the proposed allocation site. They concluded that the site is “Immediately North of listed church but no apparent direct archaeological implications.”

6.0 Conclusion The site is to the north of the church, separated from it by a belt of mature trees. The building is not directly visible and its silhouette within the landscape is obscured. Development of the site would not therefore affect key views, as the only key views where the church is visible are from the south (the opposite side).

The WYAAS have consulted and stated that the site is “Immediately North of listed church, but no apparent direct archaeological implications.”

We therefore conclude that development of the site would not impact on the signify of the listed building or its setting. Furthermore the WYAAS have concluded that there are no apparent direct archaeological implications. There are no heritage values ascribed to the site itself. We therefore conclude that in accordance with guidance in Historic England’s Good Practice Advice in Planning 2: Managing

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Significance in Decision-Taking in the Historic Environment (2015); Advice Note 3: The Setting of Heritage Assets (2nd Edition, 2017); and Historic England’s Conservation Principles (2008) there is no good cause for removing the site from consideration due to any heritage value or due to its historic significance.

Prepared by

Richard A. Storah Dip. Arch. MA Cons. RIBA AABC SCA IHBC

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Photographs

Key Plan, based on Local Plan consultantion © Ordnance Survey and Calderdale MBC

1 View from junction of Scammonden Road and north side of Stainland Road

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2 View from junction of Stonelea and Stainland Road

3 View from junction of North Royd and Stainland Road

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4 View south west from Saddleworth Road

5 View north west from Saddleworth Road

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6 View from south of War Memorial

7 View from junction of Scammonden road and south side of Saddleworth Road

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8 View north east from Saddleworth Road

9 View from north east corner of cricket field on Scammonden Road

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10 View south east from junction of Scammonden Road and Stainland Road

11 General view to the south from Scammonden Road

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12 View north east from junction of Stainland Road and Scammonden Road

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