Summary
Officers' Mess, later becoming a Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess, built 1928, in a restrained Queen Anne style. The bicycle rack attached to the courtyard wall and the nearby garages are not included in the listing.
Reasons for Designation
Pinhill Mess, Mons Lines, Catterick Garrison, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a rare example of a non-standard and innovative mess design that influenced the designs of later messes built during the 1930s for both the British Army and the Royal Air Force;
* it displays well-considered external façades inspired by the style of English domestic architecture of around 1700;
* internally it largely retains its original plan form, with good-quality plasterwork detailing and a high-quality 1960s main staircase.
Historic interest:
* as one of the earliest purpose-built permanent buildings at Catterick Garrison, like Vimy Officers Mess, this is therefore among the first significant buildings erected for the British Army in the period after the First World War.
Group value:
* it has a strong group value with other listed buildings at Catterick Garrison.
History
Catterick Garrison, south of Richmond, North Yorkshire, was known as Catterick Camp before 1973. It was the most significant addition to the British Army estate as a result of the First World War, comparable in significance to the establishment of Aldershot in Hampshire after the Crimean War. Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), during his tenure as Inspector-General of Cavalry, is believed to have first considered the site, originally an area of farmland, for a military training camp in 1908-1910 but it was only in late 1914 that it was identified for a temporary training camp to accommodate two Army divisions (40,000 men). The Scotton Hall estate was acquired in 1915 and construction was begun by March 1915 under the supervision of Colonel Simeon Hardy Exham (1850-1927), a retired Royal Engineer. The pre-existing road system was retained for the Camp, with Moor Lane (later Horne Road) and Scotton Road running roughly north-west to south-east, and Catterick and Hipswell Roads running roughly west to east. The camp was divided into Scotton Division south of Catterick road and Hipswell Division to the north. The first soldiers arrived in October 1915. In this initial phase of construction, which continued well into 1916, about 2,000 huts were built. These were constructed using a steel frame, either with walls of concrete blocks or metal formwork plastered in cement. Scotton Hall was used as a residence for senior military personnel. In 1923, partly as a result of the loss of British Army training camps in Ireland, the decision was taken to make the camp permanent. Hipswell Lodge, which had been used as quarters for senior officers, was acquired, along with its estate, from the Prior Warnesford family and another house, Pin Hill (demolished), also requisitioned for army use.
The contracts for the creation of the large, permanent camp was given by the War Office to Messrs John Laing & Son of Carlisle for a sum of £450,000, and to Messrs A & S Wheater Limited of London, for £600,000. The temporary huts were upgraded with brick facings and improved heating and sanitation. The Yorkshire Post reported in 1924 that 'The most advanced portions of the undertaking are the "R", "S", and "T" lines, lying beyond the Scotton Garrison Church. When finished, these will be taken over by the Royal School of Signals, which is to be moved from Maresfield to liberate land taken during the war'. This transfer, along with those of other units, prompted the construction of a series of buildings in the second half of the 1920s, generally designed in a Wren or neo-Georgian style. The architects of these buildings, apart from the Sandes Soldier’s Home, are not generally known but were perhaps designers employed within the War Office. The withdrawal of the British Army from the Rhineland in 1929 saw further expansion and redevelopment at Catterick through the 1930s, a phase known as the Second Reconstruction Plan, culminating in the construction of a series of large purpose-built ‘Sandhurst’ barrack blocks replacing the First World War hutting. Further extension took place during and after the Second World War. During the first two decades of C21, many of the earlier barrack buildings were demolished and replaced by blocks with 'single-occupancy' rooms as a part of the Single Living Accommodation Modernisation (SLAM) project, completed in 2018.
Pinhill Officers' Mess was completed in 1928 and was first occupied by the Durham Light Infantry; it was built on the site of a former house called Pin Hill, which had been requisitioned as an Officers' Mess during the First World War. It was situated between the camps occupied by the Pioneer Corps and the Royal Engineers, later becoming Mons Lines. It was one of the first major buildings built during the post-First World War reconstruction of Catterick Garrison. Its design was inspired by the Queen Anne-style country houses of the late C17 and early C18. Upon completion it was described in an article in The Times newspaper as: '...the most handsome military building in Catterick. There are well-appointed quarters for junior officers, both on the ground floor and upstairs, with a larger self-contained flat for a senior officer. Pinhill Mess, on which £19,000 has been spent, will serve only the officers of the units within the "lines" in which it is situated.' During the 1960s the main staircase was removed and replaced, but the back staircases with their slender metal balustrades and handrails were retained. All fireplaces have also been removed, possibly at the same time as the stairs and, in the late-C20, the bedrooms were fitted with timber screen walls with integral wardrobes. By 2016, the building was in use as a Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess for the School of Infantry.
Details
Officers' Mess, later becoming a Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess, built 1928. Restrained Queen Anne style.
MATERIALS: dark red, almost purple brick laid in English bond with bright red brick lintels. Brick plinths and ashlar dressings, string courses, porch, and central pediment. Timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and slim glazing bars (some facing into the courtyard have secondary modern vents and grilles). The building has both hipped and gabled roofs laid in Welsh slate with grey ridge tiles, decorative brick chimney stacks and a mixture of cast-iron and plastic rainwater goods, and the flat roofs have a modern asphalt covering.
PLAN: the mess has an overall E-shaped plan, almost forming a square around a north facing courtyard, which is enclosed by a wall. The main range faces south and is flanked by two side wings. It has a rectangular billiards room projecting to the rear. The west wing has a rectangular plan, and the east wing has an inverted L-plan. Both wings have projections into the central courtyard occupied by ablutions and latrines. A bicycle shelter* is attached to the courtyard wall and a detached row of garages* are situated to the north-east of the east range; the shelter and garages are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.
EXTERIOR:
FRONT ELEVATION: the main (south) elevation is symmetrical with a 17-bay main range that terminates in slightly projecting pavilions that have raised gabled rooflines. The broad central bay is built of Portland stone ashlar blocks; it has a semi-circular ashlar porch supported on four Tuscan-style columns that are raised on a two-step podium laid in terrazzo mosaic tiles, with a polychrome lined border. The central doorway has double half-glazed panelled doors, beneath a rectangular 12-pane fanlight and is flanked by narrow four-light rippled glass windows and engaged Tuscan pilasters. The porch has a moulded architrave and a plain frieze, with a projecting cornice and a low balcony parapet surmounted by mild-steel railings, which bulge outwards in a simple decorative fashion with a bracket supporting a flagpole. The first-floor balcony is accessed from a central glazed double door beneath a sunburst fanlight, set in a semi-circular arch with stepped extradoses. It is flanked by rusticated corners, forming lesenes or pilaster strips that support a deeply moulded open segmental pediment that is framed to its rear by a pair of brick ridge chimney stacks on the roof. The central ashlar bay is flanked to each side by eight brick-built bays, which are raised on a brick plinth with ashlar dressings, a plain ashlar string course band, and deep moulded painted timber cornices. The two gabled end bays break forward becoming pavilions, with rusticated brick corners that form lesenes or pilaster strips supporting painted timber pediments, each with a central slatted ventilation oculus set in gauged bricks with ashlar keystones. The ground floor has tall, six-over-six-over-six 18 light sash windows with exposed sash boxes, beneath flat arch lintels of gauged brickwork with ashlar keystones and ashlar sills. The first floor is lit by smaller six-over-six timber sash windows, without keystones.
SIDE ELEVATIONS: the two-storey, 14-bay west wing and the 12-bay east wing project to the north from the main range. The southern two bays form the side elevations of the pavilions, with timber cornices that wrap around the return walls. Both side elevations have a similar appearance to the main elevation, although they differ in detail. Beyond the pavilions, they are set back and stepped down in height, resulting in smaller ground-floor windows that match those of the first floor. The ground-floor bays immediately adjacent to the pavilions are occupied by recessed opposed doorways that are situated at the opposite ends of the transverse corridor of the main range. Each doorway has a concrete doorstep flanked by a cast-iron boot scrapper. The ground floor of the west range has a further similar recessed doorway two-thirds along its length, and the east range has a blind window space, several barred windows and two narrow water closet windows at its northern end. A basement light well, guarded by wrought-iron spear railings, is situated against the east elevation beneath the three-barred pantry windows. The cellar is lit from the light well by three-barred casement windows with flat ashlar lintels.
REAR AND COURTYARD ELEVATIONS: these are similarly detailed to the side elevations, with the same style of windows; the northern return ranges of the east and west wings both function as ablutions blocks. An original single-storey L-plan former outhouse (now a plant room) is built against the ground floor of the north-west corner of the east ablutions block, within the re-entrant angle of the brick courtyard wall. The former western return of the plant room has been truncated, leaving a raised concrete floor platform and witness marks as evidence of the former coal, bottle, and kitchen store. The eastern rendered elevation of the plant room is pierced by two windows and a louvred double door. The north elevation (part of the courtyard wall) has a louvred vent, an attached bicycle shelter* (the shelter is not of special interest), and the structure has an asphalted flat roof. The courtyard wall extends to an open gateway, which is flanked by a return wall that is attached to the north-east corner of the west ablutions block. The walls have brick copings that are laid on edge on tile drip moulds, and terminate in two rectangular section gate posts which have plain ashlar plinths and bands, and tile cap stones. The bases are protected by two cylindrical rubbing stones. The enclosed courtyard is laid in concrete, with a central fall and drain.
On the eastern side of the courtyard, a doorway in the west elevation of the ablutions block is flanked to its right by a scullery, a single-storey kitchen and a wash-up room lit by tall sash windows, some of which have been adapted to receive secondary kitchen vents and grilles. Both rooms have flat asphalted roofs and glazed cupolas that top-light the interiors. An open staircase protected by cast-iron railings descends against the kitchen wall to a basement boiler room. On the southern side, a stair turret with a hipped roof is sandwiched in the left-hand corner between the wash-up room and a projecting single-storey billiard room, which has a flat asphalted roof with a central glazed cupola. The right-hand corner is occupied by a two-storey, flat-roofed ablutions and lavatory block. A two-storey, flat-roofed ablutions block projects out from the centre of the west wing. This block has a doorway in its northern elevation that gives access to a service stair hall.
INTERIOR: the entrance porch of the main range leads into a central vestibule and then to an axial corridor, aligned east to west, which gives access to the principal rooms. The corridor has been compartmentalised into sections by modern fire door partitions* (the partitions are not of special interest). The ante room, bar and sitting room are to the right and the dining room to the left. The dining room has a parquet floor, and is lined with pilasters which support moulded ceiling beams. The eastern end of the room has a proscenium arch, allowing it to be used for entertainments (this area is marked as ‘Band’ on an original site plan). The western end of the axial corridor gives access to the four ground-floor bed-sitting rooms of the west wing. The eastern end of the corridor gives access to the kitchen and service rooms in the east wing. A doorway directly opposite the entrance hall leads into a rectangular-plan, side and top-lit billiard room. The main staircase is offset to the right of the central vestibule, with an open stair well accessed directly off the axial corridor. The 1960s staircase has mild-steel plain balusters, spaced by slender open parallelogram-shaped panels, decorated with repeating ‘V’-shaped flat bar struts, with a plain timber newel post, moulded timber handrail, and a plywood string.
The staircase leads to the first-floor main axial corridor that is sub-divided by fire door partitions* (the partitions are not of special interest); it has a series of bed-sitting rooms on its southern side and a larger bedroom at each end within the corner pavilions. A short staircase at the western end, protected by a balustrade with plain wrought-iron balusters and a moulded timber handrail, descends to the level of the west-wing corridor. The first-floor west-wing corridor is aligned north to south, with bedrooms and a box room on its western side and ablutions and latrine blocks to the eastern side. The central ablutions block has a plain 1920s staircase with wrought-iron balusters, painted handrail, and concrete steps, while the other two blocks have a utility room each. The first floor of the east wing has a similar arrangement and its axial corridor is also approached by a short flight of steps, with bed-sitting rooms and a box room on the eastern side, and an ablutions block with a utility room and a box room at its northern end. A plain 1920s staircase also leads down within the ablutions block to the courtyard. There are no original fireplaces remaining and some of the rooms have been reconfigured with late-C20 room dividers* (the modern dividers are not of special interest), but much character is brought to the interior by the original moulded skirtings, dado, picture rails, and the moulded plaster cornices. Several panelled skylights also remain, lighting the billiard room, kitchen and the wash-up room.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the attached bicycle shelter, detached garage block, internal fire door partitions and the late-C20 internal room dividers in the first-floor bedrooms are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or interest may still require Listed Building Consent and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.
