| Description | 153 Westgate, Wakefield. Well appointed brick house of the mid 18th century.
'Late C18 house of 3 storeys, three windows. Red brick. Pyramidal roof of stone slates. Moulded stone frieze and eaves cornice, Segmental arches and stone cills to recessed sash windows with glazing bars. At ground floor left a set back entrance under round arch has panelled door and wrought iron top screen'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 06/12/1973. Date amended 01/02/1979. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1258992. Web site accessed 11/12/2013).
153 Westgate was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1979 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1979). The field work report is transcribed below:
'This is a brick house of mid 18th century date. It is of three bays and three storeys. On plan there is a main block two rooms deep facing on to Westgate to the north: the rear has largely been replaced by modern mill buildings, but a plan of 1875 shows a long narrow range of service and industrial buildings running off to the south at a slight angle, probably occupying an old burgage plot.
The facade of the house has a main door with a round arched head. The windows have shallow arched heads and the frames are recessed behind the surface wall, in contrast to the earlier house to the west. There is a heavy eaves cornice, and the roof is pyramidal.
The front door opened originally into a passage giving access to the rear. There appears to have been no direct access from the passage to the main room fronting on to Westgate. This was reached from the stair hall which ran across the house between the two main rooms. The front room, called the Dining Room in 1875, is of two bays and is heated by a stack on the west wall: it retains its original heavy casement moulded cornice.
The rear of the south room, used as a breakfast room in 1875, again retains its cornice.
These are the only ground floor rooms to survive the gradual replacement of buildings on this site. The 1875 plan shows that the house then ran on to the north, probably in the form of a separate and lower block, to give two kitchens and all the industrial shops associated with the 19th century textile mill. Whether the mid 18th century house also had a rear combining service and industrial rooms cannot be determined. Further research might bring to light the name and occupation of the builder, but at present it may perhaps be suggested that, if the builder was a merchant, he may well have provided space for storage and finishing for his merchandise.
The narrow frontage to Westgate, and the fact that the main block is but two rooms deep, restricts the living accommodation on the ground floor. The first floor, however, contains further living rooms. The main stair survives, rising from ground to top floor: it has turned balusters (two to a step), a moulded swept handrail, simple round newels, and shaped cheeks. On the first floor there are again two main rooms. That facing on to Westgate occupies all three bays and was probably the main living room: it has 19th century decoration. The rear room again retains its original cornice, with a heavy casement, the existence of which shows the 'polite' use of this room, perhaps as a main bedroom or as a further living room. The spread of living accommodation up to the first floor changes the conventional use of the top floor, for here, instead of the expected plain rooms, are two rooms with decorative cornices. These, then, were main bedrooms, reached by the main stair. Servants' and lesser bedrooms must have been located in the rear range, perhaps over the kitchen shown on the 1875 plan. The service stair is sited in an irregularly shaped room to the west of the breakfast room. |