Newbold Buildings, 33-37 Oldham Road, Milkstone and Deeplish, Rochdale

Summary

Former co-operative society central premises, now shops and offices, 1877 for the Rochdale Conservative Industrial Co-operative Society. The architect is not known.

Description

Former co-operative society central premises, now shops and offices, 1877 for the Rochdale Conservative Industrial Co-operative Society. The architect is not known.

MATERIALS: orange brick with a sandstone ashlar-clad ground floor to the roadside elevations, sandstone ashlar dressings and a slate roof.

PLAN: the three-storey building is an approximately kite-shaped quadrilateral with a curved west corner at the junction of Oldham Road and Milnrow Road and a canted east end.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey building stands at the angled junction between Oldham Road and Milnrow Road with a curved outer bay at this junction and three bays to the road elevations. The ground floor of the road elevations has shop windows and doors separated by banded ashlar pilasters with moulded capitals supporting a frieze and dentilated cornice which wraps round the curved corner. The upper floors are of orange brick laid in English garden wall bond (3:1) with thin, moulded stone sill and impost bands and a dentilated eaves cornice. The curved corner bay has a small, triangular, curved gable with stone coping supported by two corbels carved with human faces. The first floor has a segmental-arched window with an ashlar surround of alternating quoin jambs and a two-centred stone arch with moulded hood. Immediately above this is a stone panel inscribed 'ESTABLISHED / MARCH 1869 / ERECTED 1877'. At second-floor level is a white clock with black hands and Roman numerals set in a moulded stone frame, with a small, decorative circular panel of stone in the gable apex.

To the left is the Milnrow Road (north) elevation, which has three small, triangular gables, two paired and one at the right-hand end of the elevation (adjacent to the corner gable). The left-hand outer corner has alternating stone quoins. The upper floor windows are placed beneath the gables. On the first floor are three paired windows, similarly detailed to the curved corner window with segmental heads and ashlar surrounds of alternating quoin jambs and paired two-centred ashlar arches, with carved foliate corbels between the moulded hoods (some of which are missing). The second floor has paired round-headed windows framed by pink granite colonettes with foliate capitals and ashlar arches to the heads which project beyond the cornice into the gables and have carved head corbels between the moulded hoods (some of which are missing). The gable apexes have small, decorative circular panels of stone. On the ground floor three shop windows alternate with two doorways, the right-hand doorway being blocked up.

To the right is the Oldham Road (south-west) elevation which has one triangular gable to the left-hand end of the elevation (adjacent to the corner gable) and two closely-spaced gables to the right. Between the gables is a dentilated eaves cornice and the gables' apexes also have small, decorative circular panels of stone. The upper windows are placed beneath the gables and are the same as those on the Milnrow Road elevation; all the first and second floor windows have one-over-one pane sashes. On the ground floor there is a shop window to the left-hand side, then a narrow, blind recess, a doorway (blocked up), a shop window, a second doorway (blocked up) and a shop window to the right-hand side.

The canted east elevation is built of orange brick laid in English garden wall bond (3:1). It has a gable to the left, south-facing wall and a gable at the right, east-facing wall with a small gablet to its immediate left. The south-facing wall has a first-floor taking-in door adjacent to the outer corner. The segmental-arched doorway has a shaped stone frame and is now bricked up. Above at second-floor level is a round-headed window with stone sill and head and a one-over-one pane sash. To the right, at ground-floor level is a doorway with an adjacent window, both with stone frames (mainly obscured by modern safety shutters). Immediately above are two, slightly staggered, segmental-arched windows with shaped stone heads and stone sills. Above are two rows of staggered stair windows. They have segmental-arched heads and the stone lintels of the lower two windows also form the sills of the upper two windows. The stair windows have casement frames. The east-facing wall is largely obscured by a modern, two-storey building abutting the wall (OS maps indicate that historically this wall abutted an adjacent property). The wall above at second-floor level is blind.

INTERIOR: the interior was not inspected.

History

This corner building was constructed as the central premises building of the Rochdale Conservative Industrial Co-operative Society (RCICS). Founded in 1869, the RCICS was the second distributive or retail co-operative society in the town, after the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, which was founded in 1844. It was founded to counter the liberal-leaning influence of the Pioneers. Other conservative industrial co-operative societies were founded in East Lancashire in the 1860s and 1870s, such as Ramsbottom, also founded in 1869, and Rawtenstall, founded in 1872.

Like other co-operative societies, the RCICS started in converted premises before building a network of branches and one headquarters building, or central premises. The Newbold Buildings was built in 1877 as the central premises of the RCICS. Like most central premises, it was located at a street corner to maximise its visibility. The architect is not known, but it is possible that the local architect James Cheetham was involved, who had designed the Pioneers’ central premises in the 1860s, as well as a branch store in Regent Street for the RCICS in 1870.

No plans for the building appear to survive. However, it is likely that its accommodation was similar to the central premises for another local retail co-operative, the Rochdale Provident Co-operative Society. Their building in Lord Street included showrooms for shoes, drapery, millinery and furnishings, as well as stores, offices, workshops, committee rooms, a board room and an assembly hall on the top floor.

After the RCICS was wound down in 1905 to 1906, the building became known as Newbold Chambers and was home to the Newbold Friendly Society.

The building now has shops on the ground floor and permission was granted in May 2019 to convert the offices on the upper floors to apartments.

Reasons for Listing

The Newbold Buildings, former central premises of the Rochdale Conservative Industrial Co-operative Society, 33-37 Oldham Road/14-16 Milnrow Road, of 1877, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a well-designed building in a prominent corner location with a handsome curved outer corner with a clock, and equal emphasis to the appearance, rhythm and detailing of the two main elevations fronting Oldham Road and Milnrow Road;

* the building makes use of good-quality materials, notably the sandstone ashlar used entirely for the ground-floor shops, to present a dependable reassurance of quality to its customers.

Historic interest:
* built as the central premises, or headquarters, of the Rochdale Conservative Industrial Co-operative Society, the second co-operative society founded in Rochdale, a town synonymous with the foundation of the modern co-operative movement.

External Links

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