Description

SD 97 SE
1301/11/10003

KETTLEWELL WITH STARBOTTON
Chapel at Scargill House, including linking passage, staircase and vestry

II*

Chapel for religious holiday and conference centre. 1958-61. G.G. Pace. Local limestone rubble, exposed cedar boarding, some exposed concrete, red-cedar shingles to steeply pitched chapel roof, flat roof to link block. Rectangular aisled chapel with serpentine link to Scargill House, containing staircase and vestry; projecting north porch. Chapel is dominated by steeply pitched shingle-covered roof, which sweeps down at a slightly more gradual angle towards the eaves. Gables both glazed, with glazing rising into point of gables, divided by timber mullions and transoms of varying thickness into lights of rectangular shape and varying sizes. Exposed cedar vertical boarding around and below these windows. Prominent buttresses supporting large concrete gutter spouts. Serpentine link of local stone rubble swells to accommodate staircase and attains a monumental scale due to the fall in the land towards Scargill House. It is articulated by rows of linked vertical strip windows.
Internally, the altar is placed on the short axis, parallel with the roof ridge, and is set forward from the wall as a broad, low, sanctuary step. Internally the walls are of exposed rubble stone and the roof is supported by large laminated timber trusses, which divide into a `y' shape at the base to define the aisles. The windows are glazed with plain plate glass deliberately chosen to allow glimpses of the dale. Reading desk and chair comprises roughly dressed monolithic stone slabs with `chunky' timber; a pair of pedestals to rear of altar also of stone. A large black metal cross to rear of altar is also in Pace's characteristic manner. `Chunky' timber benches. Simple black metal pendant lights, cylindrical, with slightly flared mouths, are also original. Varnished wood block floor. In the passage a cross is described in studs on the plastered wall of the staircase. Scargill House itself is not included in the listing.
One of Pace's best churches, deceptive in its simplicity and designed, using local materials `to appear to grow out of the dale', as Pace intended. It is also liturgically advanced for its date in England, with its free-standing altar placed in front of the side wall.

Listing NGR: SD9779971067

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q99671056

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)