Report

ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE ANCIENT AND HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF ENGLAND

Report to The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty

May It Please Your Majesty

We, the undersigned Commissioners appointed to make an Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilisation and conditions of life of the people of England, excluding Monmouthshire, from the earliest times to the year 1714, and such further Monuments and Constructions subsequent to that year as may seem in our discretion to be worthy of mention therein, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation, do humbly submit to Your Majesty the following Report, being the thirtieth Report on the Work of the Commission since its first appointment.

2. We have pleasure in reporting the completion of our recording of the Monuments in the City of York lying outside the line of the City walls to the east of the river Ouse, an area containing 304 monuments.

3. Following our usual practice we have prepared a full, illustrated Inventory of the monuments in eastern extramural York, which will be issued as York IV. As in other recent Inventories, the Commissioners have adopted the terminal date of 1850 for the monuments included in the Inventory, but with a brief notice of one prominent later building.

4. The methods adopted in previous Inventories have in general been adhered to. This Inventory covers areas of extensive development of the first half of the 19th century, and the larger houses of this period make a substantial contribution to the record of domestic buildings; for the smaller houses many whole streets have been recorded as single monuments.

5. Our thanks are due to incumbents and churchwardens and to owners and occupiers who have allowed access by our staff to the Monuments in their charge or ownership, especially to the University of York and the Directors of the York Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, Dr. P. J. Nuttgens and Mr. R. K. Macleod, and to the Curators of the Yorkshire Museum, Mr. G. F. Willmot and Mr. A. Butterworth, to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and the Corporation of York. We are indebted to Mr. O. S. Tomlinson, York City Librarian, and Mr. L. M. Smith of the Reference Library, Mr. C. B. L. Barr of the York Minster Library, and Mrs. N. K. M. Gurney of the Borthwick Institute, to Mr. J. Ingamells of the York City Art Gallery and to Mr. J. M. Collinson, archivist at the Leeds City Library; also to the partners in the firm of Messrs. Brierley, Leckenby and Keighley, architects, who have allowed us to reproduce drawings from their archive, and to many other architects who have lent us drawings. Mr. R. J. Malden has assisted in the identification of ironwork.

6. We humbly recommend to Your Majesty's notice the following Monuments in the eastern extramural area of the City of York as 'most worthy of preservation':

Earthworks

(1) Lamel Hill, incorporating part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery beneath a gun platform thrown up in 1644.

Ecclesiastical

(4) St. Mary's Abbey, the ruins of a great late 13th-century church, incorporating some remains of a church founded in the late 11th century, with the Hospitium and fragments of the claustral buildings dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries. The Gatehouse, walls and towers enclosing the abbey precinct were recommended to Your Majesty's notice in our twenty-eighth Report (York II).

(9) Parish Church of St. Olave, mostly rebuilt in the 15th and 18th centuries, incorporating part of the precinct wall of St. Mary's abbey and connected to the abbey chapel of St. Mary at the Gate.

Secular

(11) The King's Manor, formerly the house of the Abbot of St. Mary's, dating in part from the 13th century, rebuilt in the 15th century and enlarged to form a palace for the Council of the North in the 16th and 17th centuries.

(12) The Yorkshire Museum, built in 1827–9 to the design of William Wilkins, r.a.

(21) Bootham Park Hospital, the front block completed in 1777 to the design of John Carr.

The monuments listed below in Bootham and Clifton include a small number which though not individually of especial distinction are part of a group of scenic value, giving character to one of the most pleasing approaches to the City.

(23) Ingram's Hospital, Bootham, a range of 17th-century almshouses.

(26) Wandesford House, almshouses opened in 1743.

(28) St. Peter's School, buildings of 1838 in the Gothic style by John Harper.

(39) No. 33 Bootham, a house built by Robert Clough, master builder, between 1753 and 1755.

(40) No. 35 Bootham, a house built before 1688 and heightened in the 18th century.

(41) Nos. 39, 41, 43 Bootham, part of a block of four houses of 1748.

(42) No. 47 Bootham, a house designed by John Carr in 1753.

(43) No. 49 Bootham, a house built in the late 17th century and heightened in c. 1738.

(44) No. 51 Bootham, a large house designed by Peter Atkinson senior, completed in 1803.

(45) Nos. 53, 55 Bootham, a pair of houses possibly designed by John Carr and built c. 1765.

(46) No. 57 Bootham, a house built c. 1759 but remodelled c. 1830.

(47) No. 59 Bootham, a house of the 18th century.

(48) No. 61 Bootham, a late 18th-century house.

Monuments (41–48) all have street fronts of high architectural quality and many of them contain good fittings. They form the best group of domestic buildings in the City.

(50) Nos. 67, 69, 71 and 73 Bootham, four houses of the early 19th century, with shallow bow windows, for their scenic contribution to the street as a whole.

(51) Nos. 75 and 77 Bootham, houses of 1770, for their scenic value.

(56, 57) Nos. 54 and 56 Bootham, two houses of c. 1840, both with interesting fronts and internal fittings and complementing the earlier group on the opposite side of the street.

(67) Nos. 2 and 4 Clifton, a pair of large houses of c. 1835.

(68) No. 8 Clifton, a house built between 1782 and 1784.

(69) The White House, No. 10 Clifton, a house of the early 18th century, heightened later in the century and enlarged c. 1830.

(70) Nos. 14, 16 Clifton, a symmetrical pair of houses of c. 1800.

(71) No. 18 Clifton, a house built after 1836.

(72) Nos. 26, 28, 30, 32 Clifton, a row of houses of c. 1841.

(73) No. 36 Clifton, a house built in the 18th century.

(74) No. 40 Clifton, a house of the early 19th century.

(75) Nos. 42, 44 Clifton, a house of the late 18th century divided into two.

(76) Nos. 64, 66 Clifton, a house of the late 17th century with curved gables, incorporating some earlier timber framing.

(81) St. Catherine's, No. 11 Clifton, a detached house of the second quarter of the 19th century, for its scenic value.

(82) Burton Cottage, No. 27 Clifton, also a detached house of the second quarter of the 19th century, for its internal fittings as well as for its exterior.

(83) No. 29 Clifton, a house contemporary with (82).

(105) Fishergate House, a large house of 1837 by J. B. and W. Atkinson, for its internal planning.

(117) Nos. 3, 5 Gillygate, a pair of houses built in 1797 by the carver Thomas Wolstenholme, for the fittings by Wolstenholme.

(128) Nos. 26, 28 Gillygate, two houses built in 1769 by Robert Clough, with decorative plasterwork by Clough's son Robert.

(147) Garrow Hill House, Heslington Road, built as a large private house in the early 19th century, now a nurses' hostel, for its internal fittings.

(278) Middleton House, No. 38 Monkgate, built c. 1700, later the house of the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved and for a time accommodating Manchester College, of which Wellbeloved was the principal.

(290) Nos. 13–18 New Walk Terrace, six houses forming the best early 19th-century terrace in the City.

7. In compiling the foregoing list our criteria have been architectural or archaeological importance, rarity, not only in the national but in the local field, and the degree of loss to a city of national importance that the destruction of these monuments would involve; we have taken no account of such attendant circumstances as cost of maintenance, usefulness for present-day purposes, or problems of preservation.

8. We desire to express our acknowledgement of the good work accomplished by our executive staff in the preparation and production of this Inventory, in particular by the editor Mr. R. W. McDowall, o.b.e., m.a., f.s.a., and by Dr. E. A. Gee, f.s.a., f.r.hist.s., and Messrs. H. G. Ramm, m.a., f.s.a., J. E. Williams, e.r.d., a.r.c.a., f.s.a., D. W. Black, b.a., f.s.a., the late J. Radley, m.a., f.s.a., I. R. Pattison, b.a., T. W. French, m.a., f.s.a., and Miss S. Spooner, b.a., also by our photographers Mr. C. J. Bassham and Mr. D. H. Evans, by our draughtsmen Mr. A. R. Whittaker and Mr. R. Meads, and by Mrs. J. Bryant who helped with the editorial work throughout.

9. We desire to add that our Secretary Mr. A. R. Dufty, c.b.e., f.s.a., a.r.i.b.a., has afforded constant and most valuable assistance to us Your Commissioners.

10. With deep regret we have to record the great loss to the Commission caused by the resignation for reasons of ill health of Lord Salisbury, who was our Chairman from 1957 to 1972 and who died on 23rd February 1972. Gratitude is due to him for his wise guidance, and the Commission staff join with us in paying tribute to his unfailing consideration and kindliness.

11. We thank Your Majesty for appointing Lord Adeane of Stamfordham in the County of Northumberland, p.c., g.c.b., g.c.v.o., Chairman of the Commission in place of the late Marquess of Salisbury.

12. Further Inventories of the Monuments in the City of York will be devoted to the Minster and to other buildings within the City walls, E. of the river Ouse.

Signed:

Adeane (Chairman)

Kenneth Hargreaves

H. C. Darby

C. A. Ralegh Radford

John Summerson

H. M. Colvin

W. A. Pantin

A. J. Taylor

W. F. Grimes

M. W. Barley

S. S. Frere

R. J. C. Atkinson

John Betjeman

J. N. L. Myres

H. M. Taylor

G. Zarnecki

A. R. Dufty (Secretary)