Silkstone Hall, formerly The Croft, including gateways

Summary

Arts and Crafts style house built in 1902 by the internationally recognised architect Edgar Wood for the artist Henry Silkstone Hopwood.

Reasons for Designation

Silkstone Hall, formerly The Croft, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Association: being by the internationally noted Edwardian architect Edgar Wood, the design demonstrates a number of highly characteristic features of his work;
* Architectural interest: an exemplary example of Arts and Crafts architecture using local materials and vernacular forms, with varied elevations carefully arranged to provide visual interest without resorting to the extensive use of applied ornament;
* Plan form: a clear illustration of Wood's particular skill in designing a house for its setting according to the needs of the internal layout rather than compromising rooms to fit a preconceived exterior form as is more typical. Entrance doors are well sheltered from the prevailing winds. Rooms are proportioned and arranged by function with windows carefully placed to track the course of the sun.

History

Silkstone Hall was originally named The Croft. It was designed by Edgar Wood for the artist Henry Silkstone Hopwood. Hopwood was a founder member of the Staithes Art Club of painters, being their chairman in 1902 when the house was built.

Edgar Wood, the internationally recognised, Manchester-based Arts and Crafts Movement architect also hailed as a pioneer of C20 Modernism, was a highly individualistic architect. He typically drew on local vernacular traditions, combining them with Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts details, but also experimented with new construction methods such as cavity wall construction and flat concrete roofs. He is noted for his use of broad surfaces making use of colour, texture and massing rather than applied ornament for visual interest. His designs also frequently broke with convention in the way in which they were placed within their plots, with the internal plan given careful and individualistic consideration. Wood's focus on the internal layout of rooms and their differing aspects then influenced the overall form of the building - this approach being unconventional at the time where external form was typically taken as a starting point in the design process. The resulting irregular external facades were then visually balanced with the use of what he termed visual "accents", the careful placement of windows and other features, balanced with variations in wall colouration or texture.

Hopwood died in 1914, after which the house is thought to have been occupied by the local HM Inspector of Mines who may have had the long outbuilding range constructed to the rear of the house: this outbuilding is not of special interest.

Details

House, 1902 by Edgar Wood (architect) for Henry Silkstone Hopwood.

MATERIALS: local, squared sandstone of variable colour and coursing; pantile roofs; leaded casement windows with rectangular quarries.

PLAN: compact plan arranged around a central staircase rising from an entry hall accessed from the east.

EXTERIOR: the house is of three storeys including attics. The main ridgeline runs approximately north- south, with a wing projecting from near the centre of the west side, and a smaller wing projecting from the southern end of the east side. A small, single storey service range projects from the north gable, with a modern, well-matched porch added to its east. All elevations are asymmetric. Windows are generally mullioned with square faced monolithic mullions that, along with the sills and lintels, are set flush with the wall face; the surrounds are formed by margins of fine dressing to the walling stone. Projecting bay windows generally have white painted timber mullions and flat, lead-covered roofs. Gables are raised and stone coped, with simple stone block kneelers.

East elevation, facing the road: the gable end of the projecting wing is itself asymmetric, with a lower eaves line on the north side from which a square chimney stack rises. The ground floor has a canted bay window serving the dining room with 1-4-1 lights, and above this there is a 4-light mullioned window to the first floor and a 3-light window to the attic floor. On the north return to the wing, there is a small single light window to both ground and first floors. The eaves line of the main range is lower to the left (north) of the projecting wing than to the south. On the north side there is a 3-light window and a smaller, single-light fire window, both serving the kitchen. On the south side there is a 3-light canted bay window abutting the side of the projecting wing. The first floors to either side of the projecting wing are blind.

South elevation: a five flue gable stack rises from immediately to the west of the ridgeline. Extending to the east of the ridgeline there is a two storey canted bay of 1-3-1 lights with a 3-light attic window above. Set centrally on the west side of the ridgeline there is a 2-light ground floor window, and a 4-light first floor window. The south side of the eastwards projecting wing is flush with the south elevation and has a 2-light window to the ground floor, being blind on the first floor.

West elevation, entrance front: the main entrance to the house is a simply treated doorway which is set off-centre to this rear elevation with a small, single light window to its right (north) lighting a lobby, and two windows to the left lighting the central entrance hall and a cloakroom. Above there is a 3-light window to the first floor with a second window to the left set slightly higher. The wing projecting from the south end of the elevation is blind except for a single 3-light window to the first floor which is off-set to the left. Piercing the northern end of the main roof slope there is a twin flue chimney stack and a small gable-roofed bellcote, complete with bell. Two small modern roof windows are not of special interest.

North elevation: extending from the western half of the ground floor is the small, single storey, double ridged service range, the eastern part being a well-matched modern addition forming a rear entrance porch. To the east there is a 4-light window. To the first floor there are three windows (two 2-light and a 4-light). One of these windows was formerly a doorway reached via an external spiral staircase, but has been sympathetically restored into a window.

The attic floor has a 3-light window with only the central light glazed, the flanking lights being blocked, this being thought to be the original arrangement. Above this there is a very small, square loft window.

INTERIOR: There has been some minor reconfiguration of rooms internally, mainly to provide bathrooms, the most major being the enlargement of the kitchen by its incorporation with the north eastern ground floor reception room. Most doors are modern replacements, but these are generally set in original, very distinctive architraves which feature simple projecting cornices forming shelves above the doors. The newel posts to the staircase are also distinctive, although the original balustrade has been mainly lost except for at attic level where it consists of a panel with a shaped handrail.

The entrance hall has two internal leaded windows providing borrowed light for the stairs and a small closet. The staircase incorporates a small cupboard also thought to be an original feature. Elsewhere about the house there are other small built-in cupboards thought to have been part of the original design.

The dining room (ground floor, central, west) retains a round-arched brick fireplace similar to one known to have been designed by Wood, but is now concealed behind a fireplace installed circa 2014. The drawing room (ground floor, south west) retains a brick fireplace featuring an opening with a two-centred pointed arch and a timber mantle shelf similar in style to the cornices forming part of the door architraves.

The northern first floor bedroom, which is thought to have originally been an artist's studio, retains what appears to be a vernacular-style fireplace complete with a wrought iron crane, all set into the east wall. However, its flue shows no sign of soot and rises to form the bellcote, the chain for the bell passing through the hearth of the fireplace to the ground floor. The surround to the fireplace is made up of different types of stone, the jambs appearing to be reused wall coping stones, the lintel being a gritstone monolith flanked by sandstone cornices forming small shelves. To the left there is a wall cupboard incorporating a reused, round-headed oak door set in a pine frame. It is thought that this room's real fireplace was set in south wall. The ceiling to the room has exposed beams.

ENTRANCE GATES: the driveway is closed by a pair of Art Nouveau style wrought iron gates set between stone wing walls, the gate piers also having wrought iron finials. To the north west there is a pedestrian access with similarly styled ironwork arranged as a kissing-gate.

End of official list entry

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