Description

949-1/0/10027

CHASELEY ROAD,
Chaseley Field

22-MAR-04

II

Detached villa, now offices. 1848-51, with later C19 internal remodelling, and early/mid-C20 additions. Built for Joseph John Armitage, textile manufacturer. Rubble sandstone laid in shallow courses with ashlar dressings, coped gables, elaborate round chimney stacks, crested clay ridges and a Welsh slate roof covering incorporating decorative bands of beaver-tailed slates of contrasting colour.
PLAN: Irregular, but near-rectangular central stair hall plan, with principal entrance to south front.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics above extensive cellars. Asymmetrical entrance ( south )elevation with advanced narrow gable defined by shallow buttresses. Shallow projecting entrance gablet with pointed segmental arch gives access to open entrance vestibule in ashlar masonry, with moulded 4-centre arched doorway with flanking cusped lights set beneath a stepped hood mould with label stops. 6-panel door, the tall upper panels glazed, the lower panels decorated with cusped arches. To the right of the entrance bay, a taller gable with full-height canted bay window below a steep lean-to roof. To the left, an almost full height 3-light mullioned window, its shallow lintel set below a relieving arch. Upper floor 2- light windows are set upon a moulded string course. All window openings have sash frames without horns or glazing bars. The west elevation is detailed in similar style. The south west corner has a canted bay window set below a pierced ashlar parapet. Above this, against the gable face at first floor level, a canted bay, and, to its left, a stair window of 3 flat-headed cusped lights. The pierced parapet links the west gable of the south front with a mid- range gable. This incorporates a shallow full-height bay window in ashlar masonry, the lower part of 3 lights, the upper level of 2 lights. Further left, a deep tower-like ashlar canted full-height bay has a pyramidal roof incorporating 3 pitched roofed dormer windows with sash frames. The remaining elevations are more plainly detailed, the north elevation incorporating the C20 brick extension.

INTERIOR: The interior of the house is characterised by high quality furnishings and fixtures throughout, beginning with the encaustic tiled floor to the entrance inner vestibule and extending throughout the principal ground and first floor rooms. The original plan form has suffered little alteration, and develops from the principal stair hall into 3 principal areas. The main stair is a elaborate open well design, with panelled newel posts supporting moulded finials, moulded handrails, cusped lozenge-shaped open panels between the balusters and wainscot panelling within and below the staircase.. The stair lantern repeats the lozenge motif below the diminutive scissor braced trusses which support the glazed roof. Principal rooms retain heavy panelled hardwood doors within moulded architraves, moulded cornices, elaborate hearth surrounds, including that to the stair hall hearth. Two ground floor rooms retain elaborate overmantles, that to the south-west corner extending from floor to ceiling with a canopied head incorporating painted ceramic discs. Similar discs are used to form frieze decoration around this room. Th room to the north of the stair incorporates built-in display furniture.

HISTORY: Chaseley Field was built for John Joseph Armitage, son of Sir Elkanah Armitage, an important Manchester merchant and politician. The family were involved in textile manufacture and owned factories in Salford. Upon John Armitage's death in 1899, a gift was made of the house for use as a school and became the Pendleton High School for Girls. It later passed into local authority ownership and is presently used as offices by Salford City Council.

A well- preserved and little- altered mid- C19 villa built for a notable Manchester industrial family. Its special architectural interest is particularly evident in an interior of exceptional quality which distinguishes this house from so many of its numerous surviving contemporaries.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670302

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)