Summary
Neo-Georgian style education building with a central clock turret built for the Royal Corps of Signals in 1933.
Reasons for Designation
The Army Education Centre, built for the Royal Corps of Signals in 1933, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for its little-altered and very well-considered neo-Georgian exterior, including features such as the central clock turret and the cartouche above the main entrance;
* for the design of its interior with well-lit, cross-ventilated classrooms and a simple, but effective, plan form.
Historic interest:
* a major building for the Royal Corps of Signals whose relocation to Catterick in 1924 was one of the key events in the establishment of the permanent camp, the most significant addition to the British Army’s estate following the First World War;
* as a signifier of the growing importance of the technology of radio (or ‘wireless’) communication to the British Army in the interwar period and the need for purpose-built training facilities designed to a high standard.
Group value:
* it has a strong functional group value with other listed buildings built for the Army 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 impressive 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.
The First World War had seen the rapid development of army communications with the Royal Engineer Signal Service becoming adept at laying telephone lines and adopting the new technology of radio communication (at that time generally referred to as wireless communication), supplementing older methods such as dispatch riders, visual signalling and carrier pigeons. This led to the establishment of the Royal Corp of Signals in 1920, recognising the increasing complexity of army communications and the need to develop and support specialists. The initial move to Catterick, which in the mid-1920s was seen as a bleak posting because most of the accommodation was still that built in 1915, caused a problem with recruitment to the Corps. This is thought to have positively influenced the quality of the new buildings constructed at Catterick for the Corps such as the officers’ mess at Vimy. What is now the Army Education Centre was built as a training facility for the Royal Corps of Signals in 1933, almost certainly specifically for training radio operators. Although documentary evidence has not been identified to show a clear causal relationship, the quality design clearly pre-figures that of the Sandhurst barrack blocks built at Catterick in the late 1930s, not just in terms of its architectural detailing with features such as its central clock turret, but in the way that the building is orientated and laid out internally, with consideration focused on good natural lighting and cross-ventilation.
Details
Education facility, 1933, for the Royal Corps of Signals.
MATERIALS: steel-framed building faced with red brick laid in stretcher bond with some finely finished sandstone dressings. Metal-framed windows considered to be mainly original. Welsh slate roofs with close-mitred hips and grey ridge tiles, leaded clock turret. Flat roofed sections to the north side with replaced roof coverings.
PLAN: the building's plan is considered to be effectively as originally designed. The main entrance is to the centre of the south elevation. This opens to a lobby that connects to an axial corridor which extends along the north elevation linking the stair halls and secondary exits in the two cross-wings, classrooms being on the south side of this corridor. The first floor is similar with an axial corridor on the north side with classrooms to the south, a smaller room above the entrance lobby being an office, further offices being within the two storey, flat-roofed northward projections to the two cross wings. A third flat-roofed projection opposite the central entrance forms a two-storey toilet block. Several classrooms have two doors, the rooms dividable into two with sliding partitions.
EXTERIOR:
FRONT ELEVATION: the main elevation faces south and is symmetrical with a nine-bay, two storey range flanked by slightly projecting cross wings. Windows are large, and are subdivided into small panes with glazing bars, the middle sections being centrally pivoted around horizontal axes. Lintels and sills are brick soldier courses, the courses for the first-floor lintels and the ground floor sills continuing as bands across the front and side elevations. The bays of the main range are marked by broad pilasters. The south elevations of the flanking cross wings have central sections that break forward, the windows here being divided into three lights by brick mullions. The central bay to the elevation has the main entrance with its panelled double doors, this being set in a sandstone surround that extends upwards to incorporate a relief carving of the emblem and motto of the Royal Corps of Signals and the date 1933. This is all flanked by sandstone pilasters that extend up cornices immediately below the first-floor sills. The first-floor window above the entrance is stone framed and divided into two narrow lights with a stone mullion. Rising from the ridge of the roof above the entrance is a clock turret. This is square, with a clock face with Roman numerals set below a shallow pediment to each elevation, the turret having a swept pyramidal roof with a ball finial supporting a weathervane.
SIDE ELEVATIONS: the east and west elevations are of five bays, the three southern bays with narrow tall windows, the next bay being blind and the northern bay having a secondary entrance set in a sandstone doorcase. The flat-roofed projection to the north is blind.
REAR ELEVATION: the rear northern elevation is more simply detailed and has windows that are smaller, but otherwise detailed like those to the front elevation.
INTERIOR: this remains largely as built, retaining original features, including most of its internal doors (which are mostly part-glazed) and high-level hopper windows between the classrooms and the axial corridors, as well as simple skirtings, cornicing and other details. Classroom dividers are possibly later replacements. Both staircases retain their original metal balustrading and timber handrails. Some later replacement fittings*, for instance the washrooms/toilets have been extensively modernised and are not of special interest.
*Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features 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 historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.’
