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Rose Windows and other Follies: Alternative Architecture in the Seventeenth-Century Pennines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Peter Leach
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Extract

The antiquary John Aubrey, in a well-known passage, wrote of architecture during the reign of Queen Elizabeth that it ‘made no growth: but rather went backwards’, his measure of ‘growth’ being the use of the ‘old Roman fashion’. If he had extended his comments to the architecture of the Pennine region in his own time he would doubtless have found this similarly reactionary, essentially medieval in its forms of composition and much of its detail, with a use of the classical orders notable only for its crudity and its relative sparseness. For the Arts-and-Crafts-inspired generation at the beginning of the twentieth century, however — the first to study this body of work with any seriousness — it represented the essence of a distinctive regional vernacular, to be celebrated for the very fact that its characteristic features could be regarded as being home-grown; while for Sir Nikolaus Pevsner it displayed a combination of both these qualities, a marked conservatism on the one hand and the distinctiveness of ‘grossly fanciful detail’ on the other. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the possibility that none of these interpretations encompasses the whole story and that, on occasion at least, this architecture embodies rather broader cultural horizons and more sophisticated procedures than any of them implies. It is not an attempt at a reinterpretation of Pennine building as a whole along these lines, but is rather an examination of the origins and nature of certain specific and characteristic elements within it, and of the implications of this investigation. The elements in question are two items of architectural detail, the rose window and the truncated ogee; and the building which Pevsner saw as representing the style’s ‘crazy climax’, a house known as The Folly in the town of Settle, in Ribblesdale.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 43 , 2000 , pp. 121 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2000

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References

Notes

1 H. M. Colvin, ‘Aubrey’s Chronologia Architeconica’, Concerning Architecture: Essays on Architectural Writing presented to Nikolaus Pevsner, ed. J. Summerson (1968), pp. 1–12.

2 See e.g. Sanderson, G., Architectural Features of the Settle District (London & Bradford, 1911)Google Scholar; Ambler, L., The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Yorkshire (London, 1913)Google Scholar; Ford, T. F., ‘Some Buildings of the Seventeenth Century in the Parish of Halifax’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, XXVIII (1928), pp. 1–64 Google Scholar.

3 Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, the West Riding (2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1967), pp. 39–42 Google Scholar.

4 Pevsner, West Riding, p. 39.

5 See e.g. Ambler, Old Halls, pp. 24-25; Pacey, A. J., ‘Ornamental Porches of mid seventeenth-century Halifax’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, XLI (1965), pp. 455–62Google Scholar; Pevsner, West Riding, p. 40; Linstrum, D., West Yorkshire, Architects and Architecture (London, 1978), pp. 48–51 Google Scholar, 55-56.

6 Ambler, Old Halls, pp. 24-25, 61, 77-82, 87; Pacey, Ornamental Porches’, pp. 458-64; Pevsner, West Riding, pp. 40, 90, 130-31, 187, 193, 237, 400-01, 493, 498, 612-13, 627, 648; Linstrum, West Yorkshire, pp. 56, 240. See also RCHME, Rural Houses of West Yorkshire 1400-1810 (London, 1986), pp. 55–80 Google Scholar, 191, 196, 201, 206–07, 216. For Heath Grammar School see also Cox, T., A Popular History of the Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth at Heath, near Halifax (Halifax, 1879), pp. 5–12 Google Scholar, 23, 109–12; for Bradley Hall, J. Lister, ‘Bradley Hall’, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (1919), pp. 1-28; for Barkisland Hall, Priestley, J. H., The History of Ripponden and its three surrounding townships (Ripponden, 1903), pp. 112–13Google Scholar; for East Riddlesden Hall, National Trust, East Riddlesden Hall (London, 1977); for Wood Lane Hall, H. P. Kendall, ‘Famous Sowerby Mansions’, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (1906), pp. 105-34; for Kershaw House, T. W. Hanson, ‘Ovenden Wood’, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (1910), pp. 81-108; for Eiland New Hall, Giles, C., ‘New Hall, Eiland: the story of a Pennine gentry house from c. 1490 to the mid 19th century’, Old West Riding, 1 (1981), pp. 1–11 Google Scholar, and Stead, J., ‘Dr Henry Power and his alterations at New Hall, Eiland’, Old West Riding, VIII (1988), pp. 8–17 Google Scholar; for Horton Hall, Cudworth, W., Rambles Round Horton (Bradford, 1886), pp. 99–100 Google Scholar, and Life and Correspondence of Abraham Sharp (London, 1889), pp. 160-64. The old Heath Grammar School was demolished in 1879 and a new school erected, but the rose window was salvaged and re-set in an ancillary building. Bradley Hall was largely destroyed by fire in 1629, and Horton Hall was demolished c. 1970. Smaller and simpler circular windows which may be related to this group are at Hartwith Manor Farm in Nidderdale (1680) and Threshfield Manor in Wharfedale ( Harrison, B. and Hutton, B., Vernacular Houses in North Yorkshire and Cleveland (Edinburgh, 1984), pp. 80 Google Scholar, 114, 127, 228).

7 See Watson, J., The History and Antiquities of Halifax (London, 1775), pp. 684–713 Google Scholar; ‘History of the Halifax Free Grammmar School’, Halifax Guardian, 6 October-24 November 1860; Cox, Grammar School at Heath, pp. 5-12; T. W. Hanson, ‘Halifax Builders in Oxford’, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (1928), pp. 253-317; VCH Oxfordshire, III (Oxford, 1954), pp. 45-47, 102; Colvin, H. M., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (3rd edn, New Haven and London, 1995), pp. 68–69 Google Scholar.

8 Cox, Grammar School at Heath, p. 12; Foster, J., Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire (London, 1874), 11 Google Scholar.

9 Pacey ‘Ornamental Porches’, pp. 462-63.

10 Foster, , Pedigrees, II Google Scholar.

11 Kendall,’Famous Sowerby Mansions’, p. 127.

12 Brigg, W. A., ‘East Riddlesden Hall and its owners’, Bradford Antiquary, 11 (1895), pp. 88–95 Google Scholar; Hanson, ‘Ovenden Wood’, p. 98.

13 Halifax Guardian, 24 November 1860.

14 See e.g. Ambler, Old Halls, p. 24; Linstrum, West Yorkshire, pp. 48-51.

15 Watson, Halifax, pp. 503-12; Wood, A. A., Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, P (London, 1815), 11, pp. 309-17Google Scholar; Foster, , Pedigrees, II Google Scholar; Foster, J., Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford 1891), iv, p. 1319 Google Scholar; Dictionary of National Biography, L (London, 1897), pp. 367–72; Clay, J. W. and Lister, J., ‘The Autobiography of Sir John Savile of Methley, Knight, Baron of the Exchequer, 1546-1607’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, XV (1900), pp. 421-27Google Scholar; Lister, ‘Bradley Hall’, pp. 1-28; Aubrey’s Brief Lives, ed. Dick, O. Lawson (London, 1958), pp. 267-68Google Scholar; Cliffe, J. T., Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969), pp. 82–83 Google Scholar, 94; Hasler, P. W., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558-1603 (London, 1981), III, pp. 350-51Google Scholar.

16 Foster, Pedigrees, 11; Cliffe, Yorkshire Gentry, pp. 30–31, 45-46, 128; Hasler, , House of Commons 1558-1603, III, pp. 348-49Google Scholar.

17 Watson, Halifax, pp. 466–67; Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII (London, 1889), p. 1115; Foster, , Alumni, II, p. 487 Google Scholar.

18 J., and Venn, J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, 1/11 (Cambridge, 1922), p. 222 Google Scholar.

19 National Trust, East Riddlesden Hall, pp. 5-6; Heaton, H., The Yorkshire Woollen and Worsted Industries (2nd edn, Oxford, 1965), pp. 145-76Google Scholar.

20 J. W. Clay, ‘Dr. Henry Power, of New Hall’, Transactions ofthe Halifax Antiquarian Society (1917), pp. 1-28; Stead, ‘Dr Henry Power and his alterations at New Hall, Eiland’, pp. 8-9. Stead suggests that the porch incorporating the rose window was built in the 1640s for Power’s stepfather Anthony Foxcroft, but there is documentary evidence for extensive alterations being carried out in the following decade for Power himself, including the internal refurbishment ofthe hall, and so a date for the porch during his ownership is the more likely.

21 Holroyd, A. (ed.), Collectanea Bradfordiana (Saltaire, 1873), pp. 167-68Google Scholar; Cudworth, Rambles Round Horton, pp. 99–101, and Life and Correspondence of Abraham Sharp, pp. 237–45.

22 Museum, Boiling Hall, Abraham Sharp, Mathematician & Astronomer, 1653-1742 (Bradford, 1963), no. 62 Google Scholar; Pacey, Ornamental Porches’, p. 461. In this case, exceptionally, the porch, which was centrally placed, was carried up to form a tower crowned by a balustrade (Cudworth, Rambles Round Horton, p. 100).

23 Girouard, M. (ed.), ‘The Smythson Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects’, Architectural History, 5 (1962), pp.46, 119-20CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The main difference is in the orientation ofthe mouchettes, those in Smythson’s designs having their tails pointing towards the centre ofthe window.

24 See Pacey, Ornamental Porches’, p. 461; Linstrum, West Yorkshire, pp. 48-51; Girouard, M., Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (New Haven and London, 1983), p. 171 Google Scholar.

25 Girouard, Smythson, pp. 115,276.

26 Summerson, J., Architecture in Britain 1530–1830 (4th edn, Harmondsworth, 1963), pp. 12–13 Google Scholar, 26-27.

27 Girouard, Smythson, pp. 27, 32-35, 209-28.

28 Manco, J., Greenhalf, D. and Girouard, M., ‘Lulworth Castle in the seventeenth century’, Architectural History, 33 (1990), pp. 29–59 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The present tracery however is a nineteenth-century insertion and it is unclear whether the window was originally traceried or not.

29 Dean, M., ‘The Angel Choir and its Local Influence’, Medieval Art and Architecture at Lincoln Cathedral (British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions VIII, 1986), pp. 90–101 Google Scholar.

30 The closest approximation in English Gothic appears to be the type of small decorative wheel-motif, consisting of three mouchettes with no central roundel, which was occasionally used in friezes, for example on the plinth of the west tower at Bolton Priory, Yorkshire ( Thompson, A. H., ‘History and architectural description of the Priory of St. Mary, Bolton-in-Wharfedale’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, XXX (1928), p. 154 Google Scholar). It is also found at a later date, in the roof of the great hall at Burghley House, of c. 1580 ( Girouard, M., ‘Elizabethan Architecture and the Gothic Tradition’, Architectural History, 6 (1963), pp. 23–38 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

31 Haslinghuis, E. and Peeters, C., De Dom van Utrecht (The Hague, 1965), pp. 201 Google Scholar, 209-20; Swaan, W., The Late Middle Ages: art and architecture from 1330 to the advent of the Renaissance (London, 1977), p. 136 Google Scholar.

32 Webb, G., Architecture in Britain: the Middle Ages (2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1965), p. 101 Google Scholar.

33 Dankerts, C., Architectura Moderna ofte Bouwinge van onsen tyt (Amsterdam, 1631), plate I Google Scholar. See also Rosenberg, J., Slive, S., Kuile, E. H. ter, Dutch Art and Architecture 1600 to 1800 (Harmondsworth, 1966), p. 230 Google Scholar. The English sculptor and master mason Nicholas Stone was married to de Keyser’s daughter (Colvin, Biographical Dictionary, pp. 929-30).

34 Girouard, Smythson, pp. 21-28.

35 Dictionary of National Biography, L, p. 368; Hasler, , House of Commons 1558-1603, III, p. 350 Google Scholar.

36 Strong, R., The Cult of Elizabeth (London, 1977), pp. 68–69 Google Scholar.

37 Watson, Halifax, pp. 685-86; Cox, Grammar School at Heath, p. i; Hanson, ‘Halifax Builders in Oxford’, p. 256. It is possible that a similar consideration also applied at Bradley Hall, the relevant circumstance there being Sir Henry Savile’s friendship with the Earl of Essex, which at the time of the latter’s rebellion in 1601 made him briefly an object of suspicion, committed to private custody (Dictionary of National Biography, 1., pp. 367–68; Hasler, , House of Commons 1558-1603, III, p. 350 Google Scholar); and so the introduction of the rose window might have been intended as a timely statement of the family’s loyalty to the Crown.

38 ‘Now it is mine, next it will be his, thereafter I know not whose’ (Priestley, Kippenden, pp. 112-13).

39 See Ambler, Old Halls, pp. 23-24; Pevsner, West Riding, p. 40; Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: North Lancashire (Harmondsworth, 1969), p. 23 Google Scholar; RCHME, Rural Houses of the Lancashire Pennines 1560-1760 (London, 1985), pp. 49 Google Scholar, 78.

40 See e.g. Ambler, Old Halls, p. 22; Ford, ‘Some Buildings of the Seventeenth Century in the Parish of Halifax’, pp. 39-40; Pevsner, West Riding, p. 40.

41 Ambler, Old Halls, p. 13; Pevsner, West Riding, p. 41; Hutton, B. and Martin, J., Doorways in the Dales (York, 1986)Google Scholar.

42 See Ambler, Old Halls, p. 70; Pevsner, West Riding, p. 555.

43 The Parish Register of Gargrave, ed. Stavert, W. J. (Yorkshire Parish Register Society, XXVIII, 1907), p. 67 Google Scholar.

44 Foster, Pedigrees, 1; Denny, H. L. L., Memorials of an Ancient House: a History of the Family of Lister or Lyster (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 178–82 Google Scholar, 200-05; Yorkshire Deeds, III, ed. Brown, W. (Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, LXIII, 1922), pp. 44–46 Google Scholar. Lister’s will is in the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, PCY Probate Register XXXV, fol. 233.

45 Goulding, R. W., ‘Notes on the Lords of the Manor of Burwell,’ Associated Architectural Societies’ Reports and Papers, XXIV (1897), pp. 63–94 Google Scholar; Denny, Memorials, pp. 205-08, 215-23.

46 The Parish Register of Gargrave, p. 1 1 1.

47 Information from Professor R. W. Hoyle.

48 For Hacking Hall see VCH Lancashire, VI (London, 1911), p. 329, where however the form of the roof structure is not described.

49 VCH Lancashire, VI, pp. 476-77, 510–11; RCHME, Lancashire Pennines, pp. 49, T52, 162, 175.

50 RCHME, Report on Friars Head, 1982.

51 Foster, Pedigrees, 1; Foster, , Alumni, III, p. 918 Google Scholar; Goulding, ‘Notes on the Lords of the Manor of Burwel1,’ pp. 79-84; Denny, Memorials, pp. 200-04; Venn, , Alumni, I/III, p. 90 Google Scholar.

52 Gotch, J. A., The Old Halls and Manor-Houses of Northamptonshire (London, 1936), pp. 19–21 Google Scholar, and Squires’ Homes and other Old Buildings of Northamptonshire (London, 1939), p. 18; Pevsner, N. and Cherry, B., The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire (2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 178-82Google Scholar, 380; Pevsner, N. and Williamson, E., The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (2nd edn, London, 1994), pp. 336–37Google Scholar. Pytchley Hall was demolished in 1824. Later examples in the area are at the Montagu Hospital, Weekley (1611), Burton Latimer School (1622), Apethorpe Hall (1623-24), Rushton Hall (c. 1627), Clinton Manor House (c. 1630), Mears Ashby Hall (1637) and Rushden Hall, and they also appeared on the Jacobean predecessor of the present Kelmarsh Hall (VCH Northamptonshire 11 (London, 1906), pp. 492, 543-47, III (London, 1930), p. 180, IV, pp. 44-45, 129-30; Gotch, Old Halls, pp. 2, 29-32, 38-42, and Squires’ Homes, pp. 12, 16-17, 22-23, 26, 29; Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough (Harmondsworth, 1968), p. 249 Google Scholar; Pevsner, Northamptonshire, pp. 84-88, 132, 304, 396, 397-400, 450; RCHME, Northamptonshire, VI (London, 1984), pp. 5–14 Google Scholar). Another early group is in Shropshire, at Moreton Corbet Castle (c. 1579), Madeley Court (c. 1580), and Stanwardine Hall (1588) ( Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Shropshire (Harmondsworth, 1958), pp. 193-94Google Scholar, 204-05, 292;, VCH Shropshire, XI (Oxford, 1985), pp. 35-38).

53 VCH Buckinghamshire, IV (London, 1927), pp. 33-34.

54 Goulding, ‘Notes on the Lords of the Manor of Burwell’, pp. 79-80; Denny, Memorials, pp. 201-04.

55 Girouard (ed.), ‘The Smythson Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects’, pp. 53, 143.

56 Gotch, Old Halls, pp. 38-42; Pevsner, Northamptonshire, pp. 397-400.

57 RCHME, Huntingdonshire (London, 1926), pp. 232-33Google ScholarPubMed; Pevsner, Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough, pp. 347-48. At Mears Ashby Hall, Northamptonshire (1637) a truncated-ogee-headed window is set within a gable of the same type but of a more bulbous oudine (VCH Northamptonshire, IV, pp. 129-30; Gotch, Squires’ Homes, p. 29; Pevsner, Northamptonshire,p. 304).

58 See Whitaker, T. D., The History and Antiquities of ‘the Deanery of Craven (3rd edn, Leeds and London, 1878), pp. 178-79Google Scholar; Speight, H., The Craven and North-West Yorkshire Highlands (London, 1892), p. 90 Google Scholar; Ambler, Old Halls, p. 88; Brayshaw, T. and Robinson, R. H., A History of the Ancient Parish of Giggleswick (London, 1932), pp. 144–46 Google Scholar; Pevsner, West Riding, p. 444.

59 Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds, MD335/20/51, Grant of Administration of estate of Robert Preston, August 1667, and MD335/21/90, Deed of Partition of estate of Richard Preston, 16 March 1703; PRO, C6/268/7, Overend v Wilson and Preston, 1691; Brayshaw and Robinson, Giggleswick, p. 145; The Parish Register of Giggleswick, II, ed. Hoyle, R. W. (Publications of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Parish Register Section, CLI, 1986), p. 67 Google Scholar.

60 Yorkshire Archaeological Society, MD335/21/90.

61 Harrison and Hutton, Vernacular Houses, p. 226.

62 Housman, J., A Topographical Description of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancashire, and a Part of the West Riding of Yorkshire (Carlisle, 1800), p. 202 Google Scholar; Brayshaw and Robinson, Giggleswick, p. 129.

63 Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, Probate Files, Craven, Inventory of the goods of Richard Preston, March 1656.

64 See e.g. Speight, Craven and North-West Yorkshire Highlands, p. 90; Sanderson, Architectural Features of the Settle District, pp. 14-15; Ambler, Old Halls, p. 88; Pearson, L. F., Building the West Riding (Otley, 1994), p. 60 Google Scholar.

65 See notes 60 and 63, above.

66 The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn, Oxford, 1989), VI, p.4.

67 Whitaker, Craven (3rd edn, 1878), pp. 178–79. The reference to the building does not appear in the earlier editions.

68 See e.g. Ambler, Old Halls, pp. 86-88; Samuel Buck’s Yorkshire Sketchbook (Wakefield Historical Publications, 1979), pp. 164, 170, 181.

69 Pevsner, West Riding, p. 444.

70 See e.g. Ambler, Old Halls, pp. 58, 63; RCHME, Lancashire Pennines, p. 24.

71 Other examples of this period in the area are or were at Askrigg Hall in Wensleydale (1678, demolished) and Oxnop Hall in Swaledale (T685) (Ambler, Old Halls, p. 87; Harrison and Hutton, Vernacular Houses, p. 91).

72 See Hutton and Martin, Doorways in the Dales, p. 5.

73 Vries, H. Vredeman de, Architectura (Antwerp, 1581), fols 7, 8, 16, 23 Google Scholar.

74 Pevsner, Northamptonshire, p. 132; Pevsner, N. and Radcliffe, E., The Buildings of England: Suffolk (2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1974), pp. 301-02Google Scholar; Newman, J., The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth, 1969), p. 396 Google Scholar. See also VCH Northamptonshire, III, p. y 80.

75 RCHME, East London (London, 1930), pp. 31–36 Google ScholarPubMed.

76 Serlio, S., The Book of Architecture, ed. Peake, R (London, 1611), IV, fols 30–31 Google Scholar.

77 See RCHME, Lancashire Pennines, pp. 46-49.

78 Pevsner, North Lancashire, pp. 97–98. See also VCHLancashire, VI, pp. 136-39.

79 Girouard, Smythson, pp. 32, 120–25.

80 RCHME, Lancashire Pennines, p. 162.

81 Serlio, , Book of Architecture, IV, fol. 31 Google Scholar.

82 See Howard, D., The Architectural History of Venice (London, 1980), pp. 107-08Google Scholar.

83 Brunskill, R. W., Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture (London, 1971), pp. 25–26 Google Scholar.

84 See e.g. Colvin, H. M., Architecture and the After-Life (New Haven and London, 1991), p. 264 Google Scholar; Worsley, G., Classical Architecture in Britain (London, 1995), pp. 178-81Google Scholar.

85 Evelyn, J., A Parallel of the Antient Architecture with the Modern … by Roland Freart, Sieur de Chambray … To which is added an Account of Architects and Architecture … (3rd edn, London, 1722), pp. 9–11 Google Scholar.

86 M. Girouard, ‘Attitudes to Elizabethan Architecture, 1600-1900’, Concerning Architecture: Essays on Architectural Writing presented to Nikolaus Pevsner, ed. J. Summerson (1968), pp. 13–27.

87 See e.g. Caunce, S. A., ‘Complexity, Community Structure and Competitive Advantage within the Yorkshire Woollen Industry, c. 1700-1850’, Business History, XXXIX (1997), pp. 27–43 Google Scholar.

88 Venn, , Alumni, 1/11, p. 222 Google Scholar; RCHME, City of Cambridge, II (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 188, 196-98Google Scholar; Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 148–49Google Scholar.