BUILDINGS at RISK Archibald Knox's Legacy to Island Must Be Cherished

20 ISLE OF MAN EXAMINER www.iomtoday.co.im Tuesday, July 2, 2019 BUILDINGS AT RISK Archibald Knox’s legacy to island must be cherished Following on from her previous Buildings at Risk article, Patri- cia Newton of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society takes a look at the writings, sketches and watercolours that renowned Art Nouveau artist Archibald Knox produced of buildings in the Manx countryside and villages. She shows that they provide a unique record of the island’s traditional, or vernacular, building styles and suggests that they could be used not only as the basis for a Blue Plaque Trail commemorating Knox’s island connections, but could also be used by Government to inform the building styles of today and to produce planning guidance for modern buildings that blend more comfortably with the island’s distinctive and beautiful landscape. ith dispar- The church is built in two agement parts which have their origins from his at different times. engineer The eastern part is the father but older, and is greatly different in with the encouragement of his character of its structure from Wmother, the young Manx-born the western portion. to Scottish parents Archibald The junction of the two Knox started sketching the buildings is very clear, for the buildings around him as a walls are not bonded until four teenager. feet from the ground. This clean Around 200 of these line of the junction represents sketches are now in Manx Na- probably the eastern jambs of tional Heritage’s collection. doorways into the first church. With many more hopefully The extended church as it is surviving in private hands, seen in plan, shows doubtless these prove perhaps that, also the bed face. more than any other island The doors in the north and artist, Knox recorded the built south walls are bordered with environment of his time. dressed red sandstone brought In so doing, he provided from the western coast of Man. A Knox watercolour of Old Laxey with its former iconic bridge, perfectly in sympathy with its surroundings – courtesy of MNH the Manx nation with a unique The stones are regularly record of the vernacular archi- cut and beautifully disposed tecture of his era and indicat- in alternate wide and narrow ed some of the architectural arrangement. Some of the long traits which were then, and stones are on their face three perhaps now should again be, feet broad and six inches high, pre-eminent in considering a and alternate with stones six Manx architectural design of inches square. the future. The jambs of the west win- Knox had for his grammar dow are gone, but their rests school headmaster Canon remain in the rubble wall. John Quine, who became vicar The eastern building is of All Saints, Lonan. ruder. The sandstone is absent, St Adamnan’s/Keeil Traaie showing Knox’s detailed recording of the build- Both were early and influ- but the walls and its angles ing’s architecture – courtesy of MNH ential members of the Isle of have in it - not in consistent or- Man Natural History and An- der – great stones four and five tiquarian Society (IOMNHAS), feet long. The stones through- which is now 140 years old and out seen quarry stones, and are a promoter of the Alliance of laid on their edge. Building Conservation which produces the Examiner’s ow many of Buildings at Risk articles. our historic One of Knox’s early pa- or registered pers was on St Adamnan’s/ buildings are Keeil Traaie Old Kirk Lonan ever looked at Church. in such detail by those who Farmstead with buildings thatched over the eaves and with small gable win- His description, published Hhave the power to influence Union Mills terrace of mill workers’ cottages – courtesy of MNH dow – courtesy of MNH in the Antiquary 1898, shows our future? that in sketching such build- He also wrote a passage building.... It is a spectacle as Not only did they let in planning law! Other features ternal chiollagh at one end. ings he noted in detail their comparing the Nunnery chap- living as words, and a perfect early morning or evening light displayed in his art include the Different styles of hous- context and surroundings. el with St Adamnan’s ‘through achievement of art.’ but, under common law, no island’s earliest style of two- ing are illustrated, from the In the passage below Knox the little window on the south- Whether or not the loca- one could build a structure storey dwelling, with lintels of thatched cottage with the carefully analyses the evident ern wall - in size and position tions of his sketches are iden- adjoining a gable window upstairs windows on the eaves thatch carefully wrapped two halves of the building and similar to the north wall in tified, small gable windows are without the specific permis- line and the almost, but not over the eaves of the building the order of their construc- Lonan - a stream of light pours a feature of many Manx rural sion of the owner of the exist- totally, symmetrical frontage and roped and netted down tion: across the east end of the buildings recorded by Knox. ing building - an early form of due to the thick walls of the in- to ‘bwhid suggane’ (project- Tuesday, July 2, 2019 www.iomtoday.co.im ISLE OF MAN EXAMINER 21 BUILDINGS AT RISK Vernacular extension of a house forming an M-shaped roof profile – courtesy of MNH One building is shown ly- what is now worth recognis- New developments in the ing parallel to the contours ing as prime features of Manx countryside should be look- and joined by an arch at right vernacular architecture - ing to provide refined ways of angles to a succession of build- shouldn’t Government plan- reflecting the true traditional ings, their rooflines stepping ning be giving cognisance to features of Manx style and down the slope. the fact? materials, not providing large, In farming terms, this was Planning policy, in simplis- blase pastiche. providing a natural response tic terms, allows for the con- But to ensure this, plan- to the need to obtain adequate version of proven, structurally ners and architects need to gravitational drainage of the stable buildings in the coun- comprehend Manx traditional contents of the buildings, tryside into dwellings. style and materials and why while in architectural terms it It promotes the renovation they were used. Enter the wis- Character-forming horsewalk – courtesy of MNH provided immense variety and of [Unregistered] dwellings of dom derived from our island interest, complementing the architectural, historical and/ forebears that was recorded surrounding topography. or social interest and enables by Knox, his peers and their As regards island villages, the demolition and replace- followers. Knox recorded the terraced ment of habitable dwellings The introduction of, at the housing of mill workers and not falling into such categories very least, a guide to a Blue the individual house which by buildings which can have a Plaque Trail of Knox sketches became the Railway Inn at Un- 50% increase in floorspace, ex- and, in some cases, the rec- ion Mills, and also the ‘timber cluding attics and basements. ognition of the importance of mill’ at Ballasalla. But there is no real control on the style of traditional Manx In his watercolours he design, or of the fit of resultant buildings themselves, could showed that he appreciated, lead to their more formal des- more than those in authority ignation in planning policy, did, the setting of Old Laxey, either within conservation ar- with its bridge sitting com- eas or some being designated fortably in, and in sympathy as registered buildings. with, its surroundings and the Such moves could be used winding river below. to produce informed guid- Uniquely among parish ance creating a modern Manx Farmstead with buildings thatched over the eaves and with small gable window – courtesy of MNH churches of Quine’s era, Knox vernacular style based on the designed the two war memori- criteria and an understanding als and the mosaic floor in All of the old. ing stones for securing such some consistent and simple make a building truly Manx. Saints Lonan – a church that IOMNHAS commemorative While living in Sulby, Knox ropes); to some upmarket order. What is the point of con- is not protected and which is medal based on Knox Art wrote of his art that ‘the places farms with upturned V-shape ‘They are always of grey structing a building on a high now no longer permitted to be Nouveau design painted are within short walks pediment at the front, as at stone warm with bloom, for point where it gets the views used regularly. from my home, passed often; Upper Ballachrink, and cat- they are for the most part very but is open to the predomi- Weatherworn and dis- new dwellings into the land- one day something never seen slide roof at the rear. old and present great spaces of nant rain-filled south-west- persed in graveyards, Knox’s scape and climatic conditions before; some new appearance Dwelling forms vary: the wall broken by only very small erlies, or the ‘Beasts from the work can also be recognised in rather than seeking to domi- of colour and the bends of the extended farmhouse with its windows. There are usually East’? a number of headstones com- nate them. sky. It may not be seen again; twin-peaked M gable roof pro- trees and a pool of water near Dwellings with all but their memorating, among others, Planning Circular 3/91, shortly it will fade and disap- file, the barn attached to the these small homesteads, and ridges below the level of the his mentors, friends, public Guide to the Design of Resi- pear, and in an hour forgotten.

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