Lych Gate and Dovecote, Rowntree Park, Micklegate, York

Summary

Gatehouse (known as lych gate) and dovecote of 1921, likely to be designed by Frederick Rowntree or W J Swain for Rowntree and Co Ltd and presented to the City of York as part of the memorial Rowntree Park.

Description

Gatehouse (known as lych gate) and dovecote. 1921, likely to be designed by Frederick Rowntree or W J Swain for Rowntree and Co Ltd and presented to the City of York as part of the memorial Rowntree Park.

Materials: oak frame, orange brick, small brown tiles.

PLAN: small, square building with a wide gateway in the east and west elevations and a dovecote in the pitched roof-space.

EXTERIOR: the building has a brick plinth, a pegged oak frame infilled with brick in English garden wall bond (3:1), and a double-pitched roof with small tiles. The west elevation faces Richardson Street. The frame has corner posts with a high, full-width rail and a wall plate at eaves level. The rail forms the lintel of a wide gateway, with brick walls to each side. The gateway has post jambs with shaped, inner corner braces. The frame is open above the gateway and contains turned oak balusters. To the right of the gateway is a post with a curved brace on the left-hand side rising to the rail. Beneath this brace there is an open window between the jamb and post with a shaped timber lintel and timber sill. There is a cast-iron gutter with down-pipe at the left-hand end.

The east elevation faces the formal garden area. On this side the frame is raised on a deeper plinth with a chamfered timber sill plate and a timber wall plate. The frame has corner posts and full-height post jambs to the wide gateway. The gateway has deeply-curved, inner corner braces rising to a shaped lintel, forming open spandrels. Above the lintel the open frame contains slender, octagonal-shaped oak balusters with a heavier, central post. On both sides of the gateway is an intermediate, full-height post and a diagonal brace rises up from the corner posts to the jamb posts. There is a cast-iron gutter with down-pipe at the left-hand end.

The north side elevation has an oak wall plate with a brick wall beneath with two posts on the right-hand side, close to the corner post. The gable apex has timber framing of irregularly-spaced oak studs with an upper rail with whitewashed render between the timbers. The framing incorporates a small, hinged door to the dovecote in the roof space with six round-headed openings and two square openings for the doves to enter and exit by.

The south side elevation is similarly treated with a brick wall beneath the wall plate and two posts on the left-hand side, close to the corner post. The gable apex is likewise timber-framed with whitewashed render, although there is no dovecote door on this side.

INTERIOR: the building has a stone-flagged floor and a plastered and whitewashed ceiling with two oak cross beams. The south wall has a large, rectangular bronze plaque with indented corners, a moulded frame, and three small relief rosettes flanking both sides of the relief lettering dedication. The dedication reads: THIS PARK AND THE ADJOINING PLAYING FIELDS / WERE GIVEN TO THE CITY BY ROWNTREE & CO LTD. / AT THE CLOSE OF THE GREAT WAR (1914-1918) AS A TRIBUTE / TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE COMPANY’S / STAFF WHO AT THE COST OF LIFE OR LIMB OR HEALTH / AND IN THE FACE OF INDESCRIBABLE SUFFERING & / HARDSHIP SERVED THEIR COUNTRY IN HER HOUR OF NEED. / MANY WERE INSPIRED BY THE FAITH THAT THIS WAR / MIGHT BE THE END OF WAR – THAT VICTORY WOULD / LEAD TO AN ENDURING PEACE & TO GREATER HAPPINESS / FOR THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD. THE CREATION OF / A LEAGUE OF NATIONS WILL BE A FITTING CROWN TO THE / FAITH AND HOPE OF THE MEN WHO HAVE FOUGHT / AND A TRUE MEMORIAL TO THEIR ENDURANCE / HEROISM COMRADESHIP AND SACRIFICE

The north wall has a similarly shaped large, rectangular bronze plaque with indented corners, a moulded frame, and small relief rosettes. The dedication reads: THE GATES AT THE RIVERSIDE ENTRANCE TO / THIS PARK WERE GIVEN TO THE CITY OF YORK BY / ROWNTREE & CO. LTD. IN MEMORY OF ALL THOSE / FROM THE COCOA WORKS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES / IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1939-1945) AND IN / THANKSGIVING FOR THE COURAGE AND STEADFASTNESS / OF THE PEOPLE OF YORK THROUGHOUT THOSE YEARS. / EXCEPT THE LORD KEEP THE CITY: / THE WATCHMAN WAKETH BUT IN VAIN.

The last two lines are from Psalm 127:1.

History

In 1919 Messrs Rowntree and Co bought 17 acres (c7ha) of land from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in order to create a memorial public park and recreation ground. Subsequently between 1919 and 1921 a small additional piece of land was bought to provide an entrance from Richardson Street, and between 1926 and 1927 a further area was added on the south-west edge of the park.

A 1921 report in the Cocoa Works Magazine states that the park was created by the Rowntree Village Trust in consultation with the architect Frederick Rowntree (1860-1927) assisted by W J Swain, architect of the York Cocoa Works, and Mr P W Woods, head gardener at the Cocoa Works. It was divided into formal and informal areas to reflect the Rowntrees’ belief in making facilities that were available to all. The Richardson Street entrance descends to a long serpentine lake crossed by a hump-backed bridge with brick parapets. This leads to a small, timber-framed and brick gatehouse building, known as the lych gate, with a dovecote in the roof space. The name for the building appears highly symbolic as a lych gate is a covered gate found at the entrance of a churchyard and traditionally used during funerals as a temporary shelter for the coffin and bier. The dovecote housed white doves symbolising the eternal peace that both Joseph and Seebohm Rowntree hoped for after the Great War ended. The lych gate lines up with a more formal garden area beyond, screened from the rest of the park by tall beech hedges. It is likely that the building was designed either by Rowntree or Swain.

The opening ceremony of the park took place on 16 July 1921 with the unveiling of a large, bronze plaque in the lych gate recording the presentation of the park and adjoining playing fields to the City of York as a memorial to the York Cocoa Works staff who fought in the First World War. It also recorded the hope that victory might result in the end of all wars, underlined by the founding of a League of Nations. The plaque was stamped Birmingham Guild; the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft was an Arts and Crafts workshop which avoided the use of machinery and had close ties to the Birmingham Art School.

Subsequently a second plaque was added to the lych gate recording the presentation of the gates at the riverside entrance on the east side of the park to the City of York in memorial to those staff who lost their lives in the Second World War (1939-1945) and in thanksgiving to the courage and steadfastness of the people of York during the War (The Grade II*-listed gates were added to the park in 1954 and reputedly came from Ritchings Park in Buckinghamshire).

Small lead plaques attached to the timber frame on the west side of the lych gate record high flood-marks in 1978, 1982, 1995 and 2000.

The dovecote still (2018) houses white doves.

Reasons for Listing

The lych gate and dovecote containing First and Second World War plaques, of 1921, likely to be by architect Frederick Rowntree, or W Swain, for Rowntree & Co Ltd and presented to the City of York as part of the memorial Rowntree Park, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* designed to contain plaques commemorating Rowntree Cocoa Works’ employees killed or injured in the First World War, and subsequently the Second World War, and as such the lynchpin of the design of the Grade II-registered memorial park;
* designed in a pleasing Arts and Crafts style, giving a traditional look particularly appropriate for the enduring pastoral tranquillity of the carefully designed park far removed from the upheaval and horrors of war.

Historic interest:

* the plaques bear eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the C20;
* the building alludes to the pacifist philosophy of the Quaker Rowntree family, both in the inscription of the First World War plaque - which acknowledges the extreme sacrifice of their employees and a desire that victory should result in enduring peace and greater happiness for all, crowned by the creation of a League of Nations - and in the inclusion of a dovecote housing white doves, the universally recognised symbol of peace.

Group value:

* the lych gate has a commemorative and functional relationship with the Grade II*-listed riverside entrance gates, the latter a Second World War memorial also gifted by the Rowntree family and recorded on a plaque in the lych gate.

External Links

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.