Summary
House, 1909-1911 by Arnold Bidlake Mitchell for Thomas Cooper Gotch.
Reasons for Designation
Wheal Betsy, Newlyn, Cornwall is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a confident example of the work of Arnold Bidlake Mitchell at the height of his career;
* for the quality of its Arts and Crafts design which draws on vernacular traditions and also expresses Cornish distinctiveness through the use of local materials;
* internally the house retains its plan and good-quality joinery and fittings, including a tiled fireplace-surround in almost every room.
Historic interest:
* for its association with the artist Thomas Cooper Gotch who commissioned the house in 1906, and within whose family it remained for 90 years;
* as part of Gotch’s relationship with Newlyn, its community and artists, and the influence of its surroundings on his early and late paintings;
* within the historic context of the Newlyn art colony and its C19 development, uncertainty in the very early C20, and flourishing pre-war years.
History
An artist’s colony in Newlyn began to emerge in the early 1880s when it was frequently visited by artists for painting holidays and to study under Henry Martin (1835-1908). Some of these first visitors included Walter Langley, William Pope, Caroline Yates and Thomas Cooper Gotch. The visiting artists gradually stayed for longer periods; Langley permanently moved from the Midlands in 1882 and others including Frank Bramley, Percy Craft and Stanhope Forbes soon settled in Newlyn, which itself was developing from a small fishing village into a significant port. The most significant years for the colony were from 1888 to 1894, during which time a distinctive plein-air painting style unified the Newlyn School artists, unofficially but recognisably led by Forbes. Purpose-built studios were constructed on The Meadow to replace the cramped and dark repurposed net and sail lofts, and the Newlyn Industrial Classes were formed with early teaching involvement from Craft and Gotch. The Passmore Edwards Art Gallery opened in autumn 1895 when Gotch was elected as its first chairman, but the colony was in decline and some artists left. This included Thomas and Caroline Gotch, but they returned to Newlyn in 1906, building a new house – Wheal Betsy Cottage – on Chywoone Hill from 1908.
Caroline Burland Yates (1854-1945) came to Newlyn in 1879 on a painting holiday with her sister, where they were visited by Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931) and Henry Scott Tuke. Gotch was born in Kettering and studied at Heatherleys and the Slade School of Art - where he first met Caroline - and later in Belgium and Paris. His work initially focused on narrative subjects, and from 1880 he regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy with 70 paintings accepted and many hung on the line (at eye level and therefore considered the most significant) during his lifetime. Gotch and Yates married in Newlyn in 1881. Following some time in France where their daughter Phyllis was born, the couple travelled to Australia in late 1883. As a result of this Gotch later founded the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists (RBC) in 1887, and he was its president between 1913 and 1928. Thomas and Caroline moved permanently to Newlyn in 1887, leasing the old malt house at Belle Vue for ten years, although they frequently travelled. Caroline exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Paris Salon, and many other shows, academies and clubs during this period.
During his early years in Newlyn, Gotch’s painting style largely followed the plein-air manner of the Newlyn School, but following a trip to Europe in 1891-1892, he subtly yet dramatically changed his painting style to that of Pre-Raphaelite symbolism. ‘The Child Enthroned’, an 1894 portrait of Phyllis as a Madonna, marks this transition and it received acclaim - although this break from the ‘Newlyn tradition’ was not well-accepted locally. Despite leaving Newlyn for a new house in Surrey in 1899, the Gotches retained their working and social relationships with Newlyn and by spring 1906 had decided to return. Their desire was to buy a smaller residence like those featured in ‘The Studio’, launched in 1893 to promote the Arts and Crafts movement. They stayed at Trewarveneth Farm which had recently been vacated by the Forbes’, and where they were frequently visited by Newlyn’s newest arrivals, the artists Laura and Harold Knight.
Having no luck in purchasing a new home, on 20 July 1908 a building lease for a plot of ground on Chywoone Hill was finalised between Gotch and Thomas Leah, the landowner. The building plot was on the side of a hill with a fall of ten feet from south to north, overlooking Mounts Bay and with views to the Lizard peninsula and inland towards Sancreed Beacon. The architect commissioned by the Gotches for their new home was Arnold Bidlake Mitchell (1863-1944), a recommendation apparently made by Thomas’ brother John Alfred Gotch (1852-1942), a noted architect and architectural historian who had worked with Sir Edwin Lutyens, although Thomas Gotch already knew Mitchell having painted watercolour portraits of his children earlier in the decade. The architectural commission was sealed in July 1909.
Mitchell was an established and respected architect; his own home, Grove Hill Cottage in Harrow (1893), was built into a hillside and so the challenge for the Gotches’ house was familiar. Mitchell integrated the house into the landscape by building the north-facing side three storeys high and the south-facing two storeys high, resulting in fifteen rooms on eleven levels, planned from a central staircase. The use of local building methods and materials was also an important factor in the project. Stone for walling was from an approved local quarry and the roof slate from Delabole in north Cornwall. As Mitchell was London-based, Gotch employed local architect and surveyor Henry Maddern to oversee the works. Maddern’s local experience ensured that Cornish traditions in slate laying – both hung and scantle – were properly followed. Carpentry was provided by FR Mudge who signed and dated his name on the underside of the parlour floor on 10 June 1911. The main contractor was Edward Pidwell of Penzance, who drew up the specifications which were signed off by Mitchell, and supplied the materials and workforce. The work was to take nine months at a cost of £1,169; Pidwell’s final invoice for construction works was for £1,267. Throughout the construction period Gotch continued his portraiture work, mainly of children, travelling extensively throughout the country.
The Gotches decided on the name Wheal Betsy Cottage due to its location near Wheal Elizabeth tin mine which had closed in 1853 after only two years. Few alterations were made to Mitchell’s designs, the principal one being that the basement was intended to be a storeroom but Gotch changed his mind and the floors were lowered and a large fireplace with green briquette surround inserted. Its planked and beamed timber ceiling appears throughout the house on Mitchell’s plans, but was seemingly only implemented here.
Ahead of the construction of the house, Gotch built a substantial studio at the northern edge of the garden. Externally clad in corrugated iron and lined with green-painted matchboard, Gotch sketched many differing views from a large north-facing window overlooking Newlyn harbour and Penzance. The garden at Wheal Betsy was an inspiration for sketches for ‘Midsummer Eve’ (1909), and the painting ‘A Night in June’, was inspired by the Gotches’ first dinner party at Wheal Betsy Cottage in November 1910; this was an outdoor night-piece despite the party taking place inside the house.
At the outbreak of the First World War Gotch joined the Volunteers and became treasurer to the Newlyn Artists’ Belgian Relief Fund which supported refugees from Belgium; some lodged at Wheal Betsy and inspired paintings such as ‘Chantons, Belges, Chantons’ (1915). Gotch often worked away, leaving Caroline to look after Wheal Betsy Cottage with help, although she too travelled to support his exhibitions and show her own works. Gotch returned to plein-air painting in later life including ‘Our Village’, a 1922 depiction of Newlyn’s war memorial in the square.
The original lease for Wheal Betsy Cottage was for 99 years from 29 September 1908. When Gotch died on 1 May 1931 the lease passed to Caroline and, on her death in 1945, to their daughter Phyllis. Having been the model for many of her father’s works, in her 20s she wrote and illustrated children’s books and began a classical singing career, including taking her act to Cape Town. There she was reacquainted with Patrick Doherty, a family friend, who she married. She returned to England, alone and pregnant, in 1914. Deirdre Patricia Marion Doherty (known as Patsy) was born in March 1915 but never knew her father as he died in South Africa at the end of the war. Phyllis remarried in 1922 to André, Marquis de Verdières; they often stayed at Wheal Betsy Cottage whilst they were living at Zennor but divorced in 1935. After the Second World War Phyllis lived at Wheal Betsy Cottage with her third husband, Jocelyn Bodilly until her death in 1963. Patsy inherited the lease of the house from her mother, and she purchased the freehold the following year. In 1936 Patsy was introduced to the novelist and occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) and after a brief relationship bore his son Randall Gair (nicknamed Ataturk by Crowley). Randall visited his mother in the late 1960s, staying in a caravan in the garden. The house was sold to Patsy’s daughter Miranda in 1974. The present owners are the first outside of the Gotch family to occupy the house, which they have since 1996.
In the late 1980s the northern part of Wheal Betsy’s garden was subdivided into building plots, resulting in the removal of Gotch’s studio. Later alterations to the house include the incorporation of the scullery into the kitchen, with the floor raised in the former and the range removed in the latter. An external staircase to the west of the kitchen is now enclosed within a mid-C20 single-storey extension. The attic space was originally accessed via a trapdoor; a new staircase has been built and the space used for bedrooms; a rooflight has been added on the north and south slopes. The sitting-out area to the south is now enclosed within a late-C20 conservatory.
Details
House, 1909-1911 by Arnold Bidlake Mitchell for Thomas Cooper Gotch.
MATERIALS: constructed of locally-quarried granite with Delabole slate hanging to the first floor and window bays, and a Delabole scantle-slate roof. Brick stacks, rendered, with terracotta pots. Windows are mainly timber casements.
PLAN: backward L-shaped footprint with an irregular plan, the principal entrance central on the east elevation. The main range is to the east, with a smaller wing with bedrooms and kitchen to the west. A late-C20 conservatory fills the angle of the L, and there is a further small extension to the rear.
EXTERIOR: constructed over two storeys with a half basement and attics, the house is built of coursed granite with worked quoins. The first floor and window bays are hung with wet-laid Delabole slate, slightly swept at each storey. The roof is hipped with two hipped gables on the west side. The roof to the main range sweeps down to deep eaves.
The principal elevation faces east and is three bays north to south. The northern bay is three storeys as the sloping site allows for a basement. The north and south bays project and have five timber-framed casements on each floor; each has eight panes to the ground floor and six panes to the first floor and basement, all with a further window on the bays’ returns. The central bay has a central porch with a hipped Delabole slate roof; small-paned glazing wraps around the porch and to the upper part of the front door which has a framed panel below and brass door furniture. To the right of a porch is an eight-pane window, and two two-casement windows each with six panes are positioned above the porch. The south elevation comprises the side of the front range of the house, with a further kitchen and a bedroom wing set-back at the north end. The angle between the two is filled with a single-storey late-C20 conservatory. The elevation of the main range has a window at each floor, each with three casements of 24 small-paned windows. The rear wing has an identical window to the first floor. The west (rear) elevation has a two-span hipped roof with a flat-roofed dormer between on the main roof slope (allowing light to the stairwell). The windows here are C20 double-glazed replacements approximating the historic fenestration pattern. On the left side of the elevation is a C20 single-storey slate-hung extension with a monopitch roof. The north elevation has two eight-pane casement windows to the first floor and a window of five casements, each with six panes, to the ground floor. The rear range, to the right, has replacement C20 double-glazed windows on the first floor; below is a six-pane casement adjacent to the back entrance. This door has six panes above a match-boarded panel and there is another identical door to the right; in between is a C20 replacement window. The windows and doors on this elevation have substantial worked-granite dressings.
INTERIOR: the main entrance comprises a porch, square in plan with a plain red tiled floor, which leads through a mahogany fielded-panel door to the entrance and stair hall. From the hall, double mahogany doors lead to the parlour (south) and dining room (north); the doors have fielded panels, are set within heavily-moulded architraves, and have brass door furniture. Two steps down to the west there is a fireplace on the north wall, with a moulded mantel piece, green-glazed tile surround, copper hood, and grate. The principal open-well staircase is set to the south of this and has square newel posts and stick balustrades with a reeded detail. The parlour to the south of the hallway has a fireplace on the west wall, with a grey lustre-glazed tile surround, moulded mantel piece and over-mantel shelf. On this side of the room French double-doors with six panes in the upper part and set in a splayed opening lead to a late-C20 conservatory. The east-facing window has a shallow window seat. Apart from the window arrangement and a smaller fireplace with a moulded mantel piece, slate surround, and domed copper hood, the dining room to the north is almost identical to the parlour. To the north of the dining room is the kitchen, accessed via the hallway. On the east side of the kitchen is a fireplace (formerly housing a range) with a bracketed timber mantel, and to its right is a cupboard with door and architrave. On the west side a match-boarded door leads to a flight of granite steps; these were formerly external but now lead to a C20 entrance door within the C20 rear extension. To the west of the hallway is a small lobby (formerly the pantry) and a WC. The late-C20 conservatory at the south-west corner incorporates the west external wall of a former ‘sitting out area’, and a window to the north is now a doorway to a small corridor at the head of the basement stairs. The basement stairs have spandrel panelling with a heavily-moulded bracket on one side and newel posts and balustrades as to the main staircase. The main basement room has an exposed timber ceiling with chamfered beams, and a fireplace to the west with a green-glazed tile surround and arched opening. To the west are small ancillary rooms, including a bathroom.
From the hallway the main staircase rises to a quarter landing with further stairs up to the rooms to the east, comprising a bathroom (formerly a dressing room), main bedroom and a further bedroom. The bathroom retains high-level timber shelving and hooks on the south wall, formerly framing a door to the master bedroom. The master bedroom has a fireplace on the west side, with a blue-glazed tile surround, copper hood and moulded mantel piece. On the north side are three fixed wardrobes which are late-C20 replicas of others elsewhere in the house; there is a further fitted cupboard to the left of the door. The second bedroom on the east side of the house has a fireplace to the west with a teal-glazed tile surround and moulded mantel. To the north is a range of cupboards which are contemporary to the house. The north-west bedroom across the landing to the rear again has a fireplace, this one on the south side and with beige tiles. The fourth bedroom, at the south-west corner, has four fitted cupboards on the north wall and a fireplace with teal tiles on the south side. A late-C20 flight of stairs (which replicate the historic pattern) leads up to the attic which is a single large space with exposed rafters and late-C20 rooflights at the north and south ends.
Most rooms have a simply-moulded picture rail close to the ceiling, and tall skirting boards. Doors have two panels and are set in heavily-moulded architraves with brass door furniture. Floors are of polished red Norway spruce boards. Window catches and furniture are bronze and simple. The fires in the house were supplied by Bratt Colbran and Co of London and are ‘The Heaped Fire’ type.
