Waiting Room, Bootle Station, Bootle, Cumbria

Summary

Station waiting room on west side of the railway track, 1873 to a likely design by Paley & Austin.

Description

Station waiting room on the west side of the railway track, 1873 to a likely design by Paley & Austin.

MATERIALS: timber framing clad with weatherboarding on a red sandstone plinth with a red sandstone chimney stack and a slate roof.

PLAN: the waiting room has a long rectangular plan of four structural bays marked by principal posts, with an enclosed ladies’ waiting room in the south end bay and a larger, three-bay waiting room partially open-fronted onto the platform. Set back and abutting the north end are the remains of the narrower former lavatory outshot.

EXTERIOR: the single-storey waiting room has a deep plinth of two rows of squared red sandstone blocks with chamfering to the upper row. On this is set a bolted timber frame of vertical posts with a sill plate, low rail and wall plate and weatherboarding infill. The slate-covered, double-pitched roof has deep overhanging eaves on extended rafters, cast-iron gutters and down-pipes.

The front elevation faces east onto the platform. It is symmetrical in appearance with weatherboarding to the two end bays and open to the two central bays. The weatherboarded outer bays both have a large, central window framed by posts and the low rail. The left-hand window to the ladies’ waiting room has a timber cross frame with opaque textured glass. The right-hand window has a timber mullion and transom window with a row of four smaller panes (presently partly obscured by a modern station sign) over two large panes, all with clear glazing. The roof over the open bays is extended to form a pentice. A post at each end and a central post support a timber wall plate over the opening and also the heavier principal rafters. The squared, chamfered and stopped posts also have outward-facing decorative brackets which carry a squared, chamfered and stopped rail supporting the pentice.

The south gable wall has bolted decorative timber framing to the gable. The outer corner posts have shaped corbels as does the projecting rail between. Above, curved braces form a semi-circular shape enclosing a pattern of vertical and diagonal studs. The gable apex has a turned timber finial and pendant. Towards the left-hand side is a vertical window between two posts. It has a timber frame with two smaller upper panes over a single large pane, with opaque textured glass.

The north gable wall has similar bolted decorative timber framing to the gable. It has lost the turned finial and pendant. There are a pair of windows separated by a post. Both have timber frames with two smaller upper panes over single large panes, with clear glazing.

The timber frame and weatherboarded rear elevation is blind. Towards the right-hand corner is a large chimney stack for the ladies’ waiting room. The tall, rectangular stack is constructed of squared blocks of red sandstone and the apex has chamfered and stopped corners and coping.

Abutting the right-hand side of the stone plinth of the north gable wall is a similar stone plinth for the former lavatory outshot, which maps its footprint. The east, front wall only retains the plinth, which shows an entrance at the right-hand end. The rear wall has a timber post abutting the north gable wall of the waiting room, with scarring for a similar height post for the front wall. Attached to the post is a timber frame with horizontal boarding. There was similar boarding to the north end, but this has largely gone.

INTERIOR: the roof structure has bolted collared rafters and the heavier principal rafters have bolted, curved braces. The weatherboarding wall panels are framed with timber beading. The cross wall separating the ladies’ waiting room has a central doorway with a vertically boarded door and a rectangular, two-pane overlight. The open-fronted waiting room has a tiled floor of offset small orange and black ceramic tiles. Against the back wall and the enclosed part of the front wall is fixed timber benching. No information is available about the interior of the ladies' waiting room.

History

The Furness Railway was established on 23 May 1844 when the Furness Railway Act was passed in Parliament. The stretch of line between Whitehaven and Broughton-in-Furness was authorised in 1847 and opened in stages, with the sections between Ravenglass and Bootle opening on 8 July 1850, and between Bootle and Foxfield Junction to the south in November 1850. The Furness Railway Company acquired the Whitehaven and Furness Junction Railway in 1865 following the latter company's success in promoting rival Bills for new railway access to the mines and new industry at Hodbarrow and Millom. The newly acquired railway required thoroughgoing improvement of the track, structures and railway station buildings, with new buildings, including the waiting room at Bootle Station, built by the Company in 1873 and the signal box built in 1874.

From an early date the architectural practice of Sharpe & Paley, then Paley, and Paley & Austin, designed buildings for the Furness Railway Company, which was also a major landowner and developer in the area. Lancaster-based Paley & Austin had a small office in Barrow run by the architect John Harrison; Harrison’s obituary indicated that he/Paley & Austin designed most of the stations on the Furness Railway, though there is a lack of comprehensive documentation surviving. Bootle Station is one of the stations on the line lacking unequivocal documentation, but there is a consensus amongst researchers that the station was built by the practice in 1873, the date shown on the rainwater hoppers on the station building. The waiting room certainly has architectural characteristics which were present at other stations on the line. The listed waiting room at Askam Station, which forms part of Paley & Austin’s 1877 ticket office and waiting room, also has some timber walling set on a deep chamfered stone plinth, with widely projecting eaves to the roof. Other stations on the line, such as Silecroft, Millom (archival plans by Paley & Austin dated 1874) and Furness Abbey, had similar timber buildings (all now demolished).

The 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1897, published in 1899, shows the waiting room on the west platform, opposite a station building (now - 2022 - converted) on the east platform and close to the listed signal box, dated to 1874 and one of the earliest signal boxes surviving nationally. To the north, on the east side, is a goods shed. The waiting room footprint shows a long room with a smaller room at the south end and a small, half-depth outshot at the north end. The south room is a heated ladies’ or first-class waiting room while the main waiting room is unheated and open-fronted onto the platform. The Paley and Austin drawings of buildings at Millom Station, although not exactly the same as the Bootle building, also incorporate details such as an open-fronted waiting room with wall benches, a pentice and some weatherboarding, and a heated first-class waiting room. A smaller outshot at one end was unroofed and entered directly off the platform. It contained urinals and two WCs, the latter separated off with a lean-to roof not visible externally. The north outshot at Bootle now remains in fragmentary form, but appears to have taken a similar form. The demolished waiting room at Silecroft is shown in an historic photograph to have been almost identical in appearance and design to Bootle. The lavatory outshot there had no visible roof either, suggesting that it too was unroofed; there is no scarring on the gable wall at Bootle, indicating likewise that it was unroofed.

Austin & Paley were a highly regarded architectural practice in both a regional and national context, known especially for their fine churches, though they also designed many other types of buildings. The firm was founded by Edmund Sharpe (1809-1877), who took E G Paley (1823-1895) into partnership in 1845. Sharpe retired in 1851 and E G Paley practised alone until taking H J Austin into partnership in 1868 when the firm became Paley & Austin.

During the Second World War the buildings at Bootle Station narrowly missed being blown up. On 22 March 1945 a 58-wagon freight train was approaching the station. Amongst its load were seven wagons each carrying ten tons of depth charges (anti-submarine warfare weapons). As the train passed through the station it was noticed that one of these wagons had caught fire. The driver, Harold Goodhall, managed to stop the train south of the station and the fireman, Norman Stubbs, then uncoupled and isolated the burning wagon despite the intense heat, before going to place warning detonators on the opposite track to stop the due passenger train. The wagon exploded killing the driver instantly and blowing the fireman down the track. He then continued to lay the rest of the warning charges, although unknown to him the train had been halted at Silecroft owing to the prompt signals of the signalman at Bootle. The driver was highly commended for his bravery and quick action. Stubbs was awarded the George Medal for his courageous action, presented on 23 October 1945 by King George VI. A memorial plaque to commemorate the explosion was installed in the waiting room in August 2021 (delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic) to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Reasons for Listing

The waiting room on the west platform of Bootle Station, Cumbria of 1873, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a simple, but attractive weatherboarded, timber-framed waiting room set on a deep red sandstone plinth and designed and detailed in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement;
* the waiting room layout is unaltered, with a small, heated ladies’ or first-class waiting room and a much larger, partially open-fronted waiting room with original fixed benching against the walls;
* the fabric of the main building remains largely intact, with only minor, sympathetic repairs;
* it is increasingly rare as a timber station waiting room, a building type which is maintenance-heavy and easily vandalised, making them very susceptible to replacement in recent years.

Historic interest:
* the highly regarded architects’ practice of Paley & Austin designed a number of buildings for the Furness Railway Company, including the listed station buildings at Askam in Furness, and their input here is strongly suggested in the carefully considered design and shared architectural features with other buildings on the Furness line;
* the buildings at Bootle Station were saved by the quick thinking actions of a freight train crew during the Second World War, when one of their wagons carrying depth charges caught fire; the resulting explosion killed the driver and the fireman was awarded the George Medal for his heroic actions.

Group value:
* the 1873 waiting room shares a proximity and functional group value with the listed 1874 signal box, both standing on the west platform of Bootle Station and forming part of the Furness Railway Company’s upgrading of the station.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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