Broadfield House

Summary

A mid-C18 house with associated threshing barn, the house reorientated and extended in the early C19. Later alterations and extensions throughout the C20. Broadfield's western elevation includes a late C20 glass pavilion.

Reasons for Designation

Broadfield House is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: the building is a high quality example of a mid-C18 house, reorientated and extended in the early C19, with an imposing principal elevation, its associated C18 threshing barn, which survives relatively well, adds to the interest;
* Level of survival: despite some alteration, much of the building's historic fabric and features survive, and these are of good quality.

History

Broadfield House was originally a two-storey farmhouse of the C18, with an adjacent threshing barn, before being greatly extended in the early C19 and re-orientated so that the main front faced north-east. The house and barn are shown on parish maps of the 1820s and 1840s, and historically they stood in large grounds which now mostly contain modern development. Other outbuildings shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1883 have largely been lost. The house was in the ownership of the Dudley family for much of the C19 and into the C20; it changed hands several times in the 1940s before being bought in 1949 by Staffordshire County Council for use as a Mothercraft hostel. In 1969 it became a care home for the elderly, before being opened as the Broadfield House Glass Museum in 1980.

In 1994, an all-glass extension was added to the rear of the building for use as the museum's main entrance. The extension was designed by Brent Richards of Design Antenna, with Dewhurst Macfarlane as structural engineers. At the time, the glass pavilion was understood to be the largest all-glass structure in the world.

The Broadfield House Glass Museum closed in 2015.

Details

An C18 house with associated threshing barn, extended and re-orientated in the early C19 and subsequently altered in the C20 for conversion to museum use.

MATERIALS
The buildings are primarily constructed of brick. The main house has a slate roof, while the threshing barn has a clay tile roof. The pavilion is constructed entirely of glass.

PLAN
The house is L-plan and faces north-east, with the original farmhouse in the western return angle. The glass pavilion is attached to the west of this structure. The threshing barn is adjacent and is orientated roughly east - west; it is connected to the house by a single-storey extension. There is a mid-C20 two-storey extension to the house's southern elevation.

EXTERIOR
The principal front of the building faces north-east, and is of three storeys and five bays with a central porch on stone steps. The porch canopy is supported by paired Ionic columns, with cornice above, and paired Doric pilasters flanking the doors. The doors sit in a moulded surround with fanlight above, and are part-glazed with moulded timber panels. The central bay above the porch has a tripartite window at first-floor level with a Diocletian window above, both with stuccoed surrounds; these sit within an arched recess. There is a projecting, moulded cornice at eaves level with blocking course above. The windows on this elevation are timber sashes, mostly with flat lintels of gauged brick.

There is a two-storey, brick extension to the southern elevation, with a metal fire escape stair above. The northern elevation contains a range of windows; these are mostly timber casements although there are some with leaded cames, including the large window lighting the rear stair within.

The western elevation of the building has a large extension, constructed entirely of glass, with a projecting flat roof. This projects from the rear of the original farmhouse, which itself has a modern flat roof, although the end gable and chimney stack survive. Above the glass extension are the first-floor windows of the farmhouse, three bays with timber sashes and flat brick lintels, below a projecting moulded cornice. The central bay is recessed. The return wing contains two large, flat-headed window openings.

Adjacent to the house, and linked to it by a modern single-storey extension, is an C18 threshing barn. The southern elevation of the barn contains large timber doors centrally under a brick arch, a smaller pair of timber doors to the west and a modern inserted window to the east. The brick elevation contains many ventilation holes.

INTERIOR
The principal entrance from the north-east front opens into a wide hall with an open-well stair with decorative cast iron balustrade. This stair rises the full height of the building. The entrance doors are protected by sliding timber shutters which are concealed within the walls when open. The hall floor is of stone flags laid in a diamond pattern, with high timber skirtings and a decorative frieze which sits below an ornate plaster cornice. A door gives access to the cellar which contains a number of rooms with tiled floors and brick barrel vaulted ceilings. The principal reception rooms on the ground floor flank the hall and contain ornate plaster cornices and central ceiling roses, panelled doors in reeded surrounds and timber window shutters. The former drawing room also contains a frieze in the same style as the hall. Through an arched opening with fluted pilasters, the rooms beyond the hall, in the original house, have been opened up to create a gallery space, beyond this is the glass pavilion, which is a single open space. There are two Venetian windows flanking an enlarged door opening in the wall of the original building. The window frames have been reversed so that the moulded glazing bars face into the glass extension. There are service rooms in the adjacent rear wing, one with an early C18 timber panelled door but otherwise with few surviving features, and the rear stair which rises the full height of the building.

At first-floor level the layout principally matches that of the ground floor. The principal bedrooms to the front have plain decoration, with simple cornices. These are accessed from the central stair which has decoration matching that at ground floor level.

At second-floor level the decoration continues up the main stair, with ornate plaster cornice and ceiling rose above, also giving access to further bedrooms which contain little decoration but retain original doors. In the projecting rear wing, the rear stair rises the full height of the building, with stick balusters and turned newel posts, and gives access to the attic storey which contains some exposed roof timbers.

The threshing barn is of three bays internally. One bay contains an inserted floor, the others are exposed to the roof which retains some original timber purlins. Part of a flagged threshing floor is exposed beneath modern flooring in the central bay; the northern doors of this bay have been sealed with modern breeze block.

Pursuant to s.1 (5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act'), it is declared that the two storey extension attached to the southern elevation of the building, and the single-storey extension to the north, which connects the main building with the threshing barn, are not of special architectural and historic interest.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

217932

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brent Richards, Mr, New Glass Architecture, (2006)

End of official list entry

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