Marsh Lounge, Scargill House Religious Retreat, Kettlewell, Kettlewell with Starbotton, North Yorkshire

Summary

Meeting room, 1964-1965 by George Pace. The main house and 1995 sun lounge to which the meeting room is attached are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

Description

Meeting room, 1964-1965 by George Pace. The main house and 1995 sun lounge to which the meeting room is attached are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

MATERIALS: concrete, limestone rubble-stone, stone slate sills, aluminium-sheeting clad roof.

PLAN: a fall in the ground means that the single-storey meeting room stands on a partial basement, which is full depth on the west side. The meeting room has a truncated octagonal plan with a shallow roof with four dormered roof lights forming a cross pattée, with a flat-roofed link block on the north side attaching it to the south-west corner of the main house. The interior has four slender posts around the four central roof lights. The link block contains an original entrance lobby with a doorway on the east side, a link corridor, and two rooms to the rear built against the north facet of the meeting room. (The 1995 sun lounge now continues the line of the outer, west elevation of the link block in a northerly direction).

EXTERIOR: the building is located on the lower side of the complex, projecting out in the south-west corner where it has uninterrupted views across and along the valley. The basement is constructed of board-marked concrete. It is only visible as a concrete plinth on the eastern side, falling to become full-depth on the western side where it contains a doorway with a plank and batten door and vertical strip windows. The ground floor is built of rubble-stone with a deep, concrete ring beam at eaves level incorporating two projecting gutter spouts to the corners between the south facet and the two adjacent angled facets. The gutter spouts are supported by metal poles. Five of the six external facets have a very large, square, full-height picture window flanked by a narrow, vertical strip window to each side. The south-south-west facet only has the two outer, vertical strip windows (to enable the use of a screen inside). The window lintels are formed by the concrete ring beam and each has a narrow, stone slate sill. The inset window frames are of cedar. On the east side, the east facet continues in a straight line to meet the link block. The higher, meeting room wall has a narrow, vertical strip window at the right-hand end. The roof has a slight slope, with a shallow step towards the centre and is covered by ridged aluminium sheeting. At its apex are four mono-pitched dormer roof lights also covered in aluminium sheeting and forming a prominent cross pattée.

There is a step down to the flat link block roof. The link block has a deep, concrete wall plate. The east elevation has a concrete plinth with a square window with a vertically-boarded concrete apron beneath to the left. To the right is a wide doorway flush against the south-west corner of the main house. It has timber and glazed double doors with a rail, and now has a ramp with a metal handrail to its outer side. The west elevation has a rubble-stone plinth, with a square window to the left and three vertical strip windows to the right. To the left of the square window the wall has been extended to form the 1995 sun lounge, the boundary between the two phases marked by the stopping of the rubble-stone plinth, which is not present on the sun lounge.

INTERIOR: the inner walls of both the meeting room and the link block are of exposed rubble-stone. The meeting room has a wide doorway in the north-east corner with double doors of vertical cedar boards. The floor is of varnished wood blocks set in a geometric pattern. Four slender posts arranged in a square support narrow, deep joists which divide the ceiling into rectangular and triangular panels. The posts and joists are faced in cedar boarding and the panels are likewise faced in narrow cedar boards. The central square has facetted boarding rising up into the four dormer roof lights with an octagonal, boarded pendant to the centre. There is a central, suspended, circular, cast-iron candelabra. The link block has a stone flagged floor and narrow cedar boards to the ceiling.

History

Scar Gill House originated as a small farmhouse with a larger, adjacent barn probably built in the late C18 or early C19 and appearing on the first edition 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey map surveyed 1847-1848.

In 1900 the property was bought by Clement Holdsworth, a prominent master spinner from Halifax, as a shooting lodge. In the 1920s or 1930s Holdsworth’s eldest son, George Bertram, extended and altered the original buildings to use for sporting weekends, moving to live here in 1933 following the death of his wife. An historic photograph thought to date from the 1930s shows the house was much enlarged with three two-storey wings attached to the original building to form four ranges around a courtyard. The barn was also adapted to provide garaging, with a full-width doorway inserted in the outshot, a bell-cote added to the north-west gable and some residential accommodation provided at the south end, which was now linked to the house.

In November 1957 the estate (then known as Scargill) was put up for sale by auction when Bill Holdsworth, the only surviving son of George Bertram, moved to his estate in Ireland. It was purchased by the Church of England with the intention of creating a Christian conference and retreat centre. The architect George Pace was appointed as project architect by letter dated 7 February 1958 and on 3 March 1958 a meeting of the Scargill Council set out requirements for accommodation and facilities for 120 people and for a chapel to be built in the grounds. The firm W V Patrick (Builders) Ltd of Grassington were appointed to undertake alterations and extensions in August 1958. The centre opened in 1959, run by the Scargill Community, a group of Anglicans from Manchester, led by Revd H Frankham and the Right Revd Donald Coggin, Bishop of Bradford. They were inspired to provide a northern equivalent of the Christian community at Lee Abbey in Devon which was established shortly after the Second World War.

The initial phase of work related primarily to the conversion of the conversion and adaptation of the existing buildings. Between 1958 and 1959 Pace altered the house to provide more bedrooms and recreational facilities and a new single-storey building was built containing a dining room and attached kitchen block, which was partially located in the northern range of the main house (the original farmhouse), with a flat-roofed sun lounge built against the western range. The barn (now known as Aysgarth) was converted into two floors of bunk cubicles for 60 people, with a laundry room at the southern end. George Pace also designed a chapel, which was built 1958-1961 (listed at Grade II* in 1998). The building was consecrated by the Bishop of York on 8 April 1961.

Pace then designed other new buildings for the centre. Between 1963 and 1964 a new bedroom block (Cragdale) containing 12 double bedrooms was built and on 5 July 1963 the Revd R M W Marsh wrote a letter to Pace containing requirements for a new lounge building (the Marsh Lounge), intended to be used for talks and epilogues for up to 120 people, as a lounge, and for dances and parades. Marsh wanted a light room with large, low windows giving views across and down the valley, but one which could be darkened to enable films and slide shows. He also stipulated that costs should be kept to a minimum and it should be pillar-free. Permission was granted in November 1964 for a building with a truncated octagonal plan with a cross pattée roof lantern and a flat-roofed link to the south-west corner of the main house. The incorporation of pillars was queried by the Scargill council, but were justified by Pace who responded ‘These were introduced to give character and add interest to the interior of the room, to enable the room to be used for various activities requiring groups, to support the large roof and in particular the arrangement for central lighting and ventilation and to reduce cost’. W V Patrick were instructed to start work on the new lounge and entrance hall in February 1965. In a letter to the builders Pace stated 'It is most important that you find a source of stone which is similar in all respects to the stone used on the Chapel walls'. The building was completed that year.

Between 1970 and 1972 another bedroom and recreational group was built with five one-storey blocks linked by covered walkways and enclosing a central terraced garden (the Three Peaks). The plans passed were signed by George Pace, but it is likely that Ronald Sims (1907-2007) dealt with the day-to-day details of their construction. Sims was Pace’s principal Assistant Architect and subsequently his partner, later recognised as his lineal successor, taking over the practice after Pace’s death in 1975.

In July 2008 Scargill House closed after running for a time at a deficit and was put up for sale. An action group joined forces with representatives of Lee Abbey and Bradford Diocese forming a steering group chaired by Bishop John Finney, who negotiated the purchase of the property with donations from supporters and a loan from Lee Abbey. Scargill House was later handed it over to the newly formed Scargill Movement Trust who continue to operate it as a Christian retreat and conference centre.

Reasons for Listing

The Marsh Lounge, of 1964-1965 by George Pace for the Scargill Community is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* designed by George Pace, a notable mid-late C20 ecclesiastical architect associated with many listed buildings;
* the design of the building is imaginative and distinctive, being octagonal in shape with large, full-height picture windows, perfectly capturing extensive views of the small valley in which it stands, and a central, cruciform arrangement of dormer roof lights;
* the building references the Chapel with Pace’s personal mixture of new and traditional elements combining rubblestone and concrete, details such as projecting, concrete water spouts, and the treatment of the interior space;
* the characterful and geometrically complex interior has exposed rubblestone walls contrasting pleasingly with the rich warmth of varnished wood block wall, cedar double doors and the panelled, faceted and boarded ceiling supported on four slender posts and rising to internally boarded roof lights.

Historic interest:
* as a rare secular building designed by Pace, primarily an ecclesiastical architect, though designed for use by a religious group.

Group value:
* the Marsh Lounge has group value with Pace’s Grade II* Chapel, the dominant building on the site, clearly sharing an architectural vocabulary and aesthetic.

External Links

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