Description

MANCHESTER

SJ8398NE LONG MILLGATE
698-1/26/225 (West side)
25/02/52
Chetham's Hospital and attached wall
(Formerly Listed as:
FENNEL STREET)

GV I

College of the Collegiate Parish Church of Manchester, now
music school. Established 1422 by Thomas de la Warre;
converted after Dissolution in 1547 for use as town house by
Earl of Derby; sequestrated during Commonwealth, purchased in
1654 by Humphrey Chetham's executors for adaptation as charity
school ("hospital") and library; restored and enlarged 1883-95
by Oliver Heywood and Charles James Heywood. Coursed squared
red sandstone, with some dressings of grey gritstone (probably
C19), and stone slate roofs. Small cloistered quadrangle with
former Fellows' sets in north, south and west ranges, Great
Hall and former Warden's rooms in east range, long east wing
continued from north range containing former kitchen,
hospitium, bakehouse (etc.) with short returned end linked to
gatehouse; C19 parallel addition to rear of this wing.
Perpendicular style, with 4-centred arched openings and foiled
lights to the windows. Two storeys but with Great Hall and
kitchen open to full height, basement under north range. The
GREAT HALL has three large cross-windows at a high level, with
cinquefoil cusping to the lights, a low 2-light "dole" window
to the left (the dais end), and an added 2-storey porch at the
north end in the angle with the east wing, covering the
doorways to the screens passage and to the kitchen, with a
doorway in each side, 2-light windows on both floors and a
small cusped niche in the gable with crocketed canopy on mask
corbels. The SOLAR END of the hall range (former Warden's
rooms, now Audit Room with Reading Room over), 2 storeys and 3
bays, has a projecting and gabled centre with a drip-band
between floors and a crocketed niche in the apex, 2-light
windows at ground floor, and 2- 3- and 2-light windows at 1st
floor. The roof of this range has a small octagonal chimney at
the junction of hall and solar, and a gable chimney. The south
gable has 4-centred arched 2-light windows forward of the
chimney, and square-headed mullioned windows to the rear. The
SOUTH RANGE projects, has a moulded 4-centred arched doorway
offset left, small square-headed mullioned windows of 2, 1 and
2 cusped lights at ground floor, and 6 large later C17 3-light
mullioned windows at 1st floor. Attached to the south-west
corner of this range is part of the original BOUNDARY WALL of
the site, approx. 2m high on the inner side, with pitched
coping. Inside the QUADRANGLE, the 2-storey 6-bay west
cloister has buttresses, 3-light windows at ground floor (the
2nd with an inserted doorway) and 2-light windows in alternate
bays at 1st floor; the 3-bay north and south cloisters are
similar except that a C17 stair-turret in the north-east
corner replaces the 3rd bay of the north cloister; and the
west side of the hall has a rebuilt skewed polygonal
inglenook, and an oriel window and staircase contiguous with
this to the right. The long EAST WING (to the right of the
porch) has double drip-bands between floors, windows coupled
at ground floor of the kitchen and tripled above, all of 2
cusped lights except that to the left at 1st floor where the
porch covers the first light (visible internally), and those
at ground floor with hoodmoulds; the continuation to the right
has six 2-light windows at 1st floor, with trefoil lights, and
windows (w) and doorways (d) at ground floor arranged
w-d-d-w-w-d-w-w-d, all with hoodmoulds, the first of these
doorways opening onto a passage which runs through to a
platform at the rear. (These openings do not match those shown
on the plan in the VCH; and the grey gritstone surrounds
differ from those of some unaltered windows at the rear,
suggesting that they are mostly restored, and some probably
altered as well: e.g. the first window to the right of the
kitchen has the rebate of a former doorway on the inside). The
roof has a small bellcote and 2 octagonal chimneys. The 2-bay
return at the east end, canted back slightly, has a moulded
drip-band (at a lower level than the bands of the main range),
two 3-light windows at ground floor and one above, and an
external stone staircase dog-legged round the south corner and
mounting the gable wall to a doorway at 1st floor of the
gatehouse. The GATEHOUSE is 2-storeyed, steeply gabled, and
has a moulded 4-centred archway through the ground floor, a
small inserted or altered window above and a 4-centred arched
doorway to the left of this; and its outer face, an early C19
rebuild, has an oriel window at 1st floor. The rear of the
east wing has (inter alia) a massive external chimney stack to
the kitchen (with inscription "Rebuilt 1902"), a corbelled
garderobe, and a stone platform to the rear of the
through-passage. INTERIOR: cavetto-moulded beams, and
collar-rafter roofs with arch-braced principals and
super-imposed collar purlins, throughout; hall has very large
dais canopy at south end with brattished cornice, massive
inglenook fireplace in west wall (altered), and tripartite oak
screens at north end with moulded rails and brattished
tops; screens passage has coupled 2-centred arched service
doorways; cloisters have similar doorways to former Fellows'
sets, some coupled; stair-turret off north cloister has
splat-baluster staircase; Audit Room has muntin-and-rail
panelling, moulded plaster floriated frieze, and beams with
carved bosses; Reading Room has similar panelling, cavetto
moulded wall-plate with portcullis and eagle's claw emblems of
Derby family, and very large elaborate tympanum including
carved cartouche with helm and mantling, cockerell, etc.; and
segmental-vaulted ceiling (inserted before 1654). Kitchen (now
Music Library) has fireplace approx. 7m wide with horizontal
lintel of joggled blocks under segmental arch approx. 4m high,
and in east wall a smaller opening with similar joggled lintel
under 2-centred arch (probably also a fireplace); rooms to
east of passage have low 2-centred arches in transverse walls.

Listing NGR: SJ8391298905

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Chetham's Library at Wikipedia
• Chetham's Library official website
• Wikidata Q2901355

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)