The Parsonage (formerly St Michael's Parsonage), Axbridge, Somerset

Summary

The former grace-and-favour parsonage for the former St Michael’s Free Home for Consumptives, by William Butterfield, built in 1878, now (2015) a guest house.

Description

The former grace-and-favour parsonage for St. Michael’s Home, by William Butterfield, built in 1878, now (2015) a guest house.

MATERIALS: Mendip rubble stone with Bath-stone ashlar dressing and applied timber framing, all under a tile roof.

PLAN: an L-shaped plan, on a north-to-south axis.

EXTERIOR: the building is of two storeys. The garden (south) elevation has five bays; a centre two-storey canted bay flanked on either side by two further bays. The first-floor windows are pitched dormers. One of the ground-floor windows on the right side has been converted into a glass door. All of the windows in this elevation are single lights with horizontal glazing bars. Bands of ashlar run around the building, above and below the ground-floor windows. The main entrance is in the east elevation. There is applied timber faming to the top of the west and east gable ends in the same style as the lodge. To the rear is a single-storey former carthouse and stables. There are three chimney stacks above the main house, with stepped ridge stacks.

INTERIOR: it was not possible to carry out an internal inspection of the building (2015). Recent images of the building show that the timber staircase and many of the original fireplaces survive, in a similar design to those found in the main building.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 09/09/2015

History

St Michael’s Home was founded by Matilda Blanche Gibbs (1817-1887), wife of William Gibbs (1790-1875), the notable merchant, philanthropist, and owner of the estate of Tyntesfield, North Somerset since 1834. The Gibbs’ had seven children; three died due to pulmonary tuberculosis. Following their deaths, Mrs Gibbs sought to help those with the condition by establishing a facility where suffers could receive long-term care and treatment. Her initial plan was to build a home in Surrey. However, due to concerns over the suitability of the climate, she turned her attention to an isolated spot on the Mendip slopes, to the north west of the village of Axbridge, Somerset. The sanatorium was dedicated to the patron saint of the sick and the suffering, St. Michael. The home was run by the Associate Community of St. Peter, an Anglican-Catholic Sisterhood from Woking, London, who had looked after the Gibbs’ youngest daughter before her death in 1874.

Mrs Gibbs enlisted the renowned Gothic-Revival architect William Butterfield (1814-1900), whose other works include the Church of St John, Clevedon (1875-6; Grade II*) and the Butterfield Wing, Royal Hampshire County Hospital (1863-8; listed Grade II). Matilda and her husband William Gibbs were Anglo-Catholics and supporters of the Oxford Movement (a mid-C19 High-Church Anglican movement), with which Butterfield was closely associated. Mr Gibbs had approved the commissioning of Butterfield to design Keble College, Oxford (1870, listed Grade I), including the chapel which William funded.

St Michael’s Free Home for Consumptives was opened on 28 September 1878. The building consisted of a U-shaped plan with a central chapel and wards on either side. There were 24 beds; half for men and half for women. A lodge with stables was built at the main entrance gate to the south, at the bottom of a tree-lined avenue. A grace-and-favour parsonage with its own stables and coach house was built to the south-east for the resident chaplain.

Built into a slope, the main building has three storeys to the south and two to the north. The ground floor contained a men’s hall and kitchen area, the first the men’s ward, and the second the women’s ward. To encourage full use of the grounds, all of the floors had level access to the gardens; on the top floor this was via a raised walkway on the north side of the building. To the west was a lawn area with stone terracing to the south.
The building was extended in 1882 by the addition of a south wing, also designed by Butterfield, providing accommodation for a further 26 patients and rooms for the sisters above. A farm located within the grounds provided fresh food and patients were encouraged to help with its running where possible. By 1886 a cemetery for deceased patients was added to the north-west corner of the estate. Males were buried on the south side and females on the north (the headstones were moved to the side of the cemetery in early C21). Two mortuary buildings, one next to the rear entrance to the chapel and another shelter positioned along the path to the cemetery were also provided. At the end of the C19 a set of pathways were laid out in the woodland to the north and shelters were built in the grounds to encourage patients to enjoy the fresh air. The hospital’s water supply was from an underground reservoir to the north, first shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903).

In the early-C20 a three-storey pavilion was added to the south-east corner of the main building and included two glazed balconies on the upper floors. By 1930 a laundry house had been built within the northern woodland and another outbuilding, possibly a game/ meat larder, was added to the east side of the home. The larder was later converted into ancillary accommodation and linked to a 1977 wing.

From the mid-C20 and the discovery of antibiotics, the rates of tuberculosis had begun to decline. In 1956 St. Michael’s ceased to be used solely as a tuberculosis sanatorium and in 1968 the Sisters of St Peter returned to Woking. The home was taken over by the Cheshire Foundation Home, founded by Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, for the care of the incurably sick and disabled. The facility became known as St. Michael Cheshire Care Home. A community room was added in 1975. In 1977 an accommodation wing was added to the east. Another wing was added to the north-west in 1984. Dan Olive, a local architect designed the extensions with the intention of complementing the style of the C19 building. In the 1990s two bungalows were built in the grounds to cater for semi-assisted living.

In the late-C20 the parsonage and its garden were sold and subdivided to form a pair of semi-detached dwellings. It was later brought back into single ownership and is now (2015), a guest house.

Reasons for Listing

The Parsonage (formerly the parsonage to St Michael’s Home) is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: it is a well-designed former parsonage that demonstrates an interesting use of materials including local-rubble and ashlar stone that complement the main building;
* Historic interest: part of a private sanatorium, a philanthropic enterprise founded by Mrs Matilda Gibbs, wife to William Gibbs the prominent C19 businessman; the provision of a parsonage highlights the important role that religion played within the design and operation of the former sanatorium;
* Association: designed by William Butterfield, one of the foremost Gothic-Revival architects of the C19, who had a long association with the Gibbs family due to their respective links to the Oxford Movement;
* Group value: it has strong group value with the main house (listed Grade II*) and as part of an unusually complete group of associated buildings (many listed at Grade II), which help to illustrate the historic function of the former sanatorium complex;

External Links

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