Briarcourt, Occupation Road, Lindley
Details
- location: off Occupation Road, Lindley
- status: still exists
- category: private house
- architect: Edgar Wood (1860-1935)
Historic England Listing
- Grade II
- first listed 29 September 1978
- listing entry number 1229696
Briarcourt, Lindley, is a house built in 1894-5 by Edgar Wood, for his sister and brother-in-law, H.H. Sykes, on a south-facing site surrounded by grounds principally to the north and south. MATERIALS: the house is constructed of hammer dressed stone with ashlar dressings under a pitched stone slate roof. PLAN: the house has two full storeys plus attics in the gables. The main range has a central hall with two main rooms to each side, and a rear (north) range connected by a corridor.
EXTERIOR: the house has coped gables, some ending in short parapets, and deeply projecting eaves at some points. The chimney stacks are tall and plain, some connected to the building with decorative iron ties. The windows are mullioned and transomed, the mullions chamfered, and the upper lights are leaded. The ground floor and some upper floor windows have stained glass in an Arts and Crafts style. There is a two-storey, parapetted canted bay at the east end of the front elevation, and a two-storey gabled porch with ball finials. The cornice over the ground floor of the porch has a heart-shaped cartouche flanked by ferns with much foliage, and arabesque and strapwork ornament. The planked door has four small lights, a moulded cornice ¾ of the way up, delicate iron hinges and a handle ornamented with a briar motif. The west side has a single storey parapetted bay at the south end. At the north end of the main range is a projecting chimney breast, canted, with single leaded lights in the sides and corners, with a gable end coped and shaped up to the stack. Rainwater heads and junction boxes are moulded with paterae, fluting, blind tracery and dates. The 1904 extension has a wide arched entrance to the right with a half-glazed timber door with leaded lights, flanked by similar panels.
INTERIOR: the principal rooms are Jacobethan in style with Arts and Crafts detailing on finger plates, hinges and window latches. The porch is wainscoted with moulded panels (some modillioned), and plasterwork above decorated with studs shaped in Arts and Crafts style patterns. The inner door has brass Arts and Crafts fingerplates and stained glass with Art Nouveau stylised briar patterns. The hall has moulded panelling and plasterwork in the form of stylised lily patterns between the panelling and the ceiling. There is a simple fireplace with a chamfered four-centred arch. The staircase has elaborate cut balusters of Jacobean type, and bulbous turned and carved newel posts supporting a depressed arched modillioned canopy over the lower part. The study to the south-east has moulded panelling and a fresco by F W Jackson depicting harvest scenes with briars between the panelling and the ceiling. The canted bay to the south has turned wooden mullions. The chimney piece has moulded wooden rustication, a modillion cornice and a marble fireplace, and there is a built in desk and two cupboards all with chevrons, cross-shaped panels and turned and carved posts. The sitting room to the south-west has an inglenook with simple Arts and Crafts detailing, a very elaborate plaster ceiling with rounds of angels intertwined with briars and honeysuckle, and a plaster frieze of intertwined briars. The octagonal bay to the side has stained glass panels of briars. The dining room to the north-west has moulded panelling and studs above with plaster infilling decorated with a briar pattern of incised lines. A canted inglenook is supported on bulbous turned columns, and the window mullions are duplicated by turned vase-shaped wooden mullions on the inner wall face. The stone chimney piece has a rose tree incised above the fireplace and a moulded mantelpiece with carved brackets to the ceiling. There is a recessed built in dresser on the east side with diamond and star-burst patterns on the panels. The kitchen on the north-east has modern fittings and the inner hall has an inserted lift which rises to all floors. The rooms to the rear have few features of interest apart from a parquet floor in the end room to the north. The first-floor landing has a round arch on the north side with a wooden impost band ramped up towards each side. The three principal rooms to the south have a mix of plaster friezes and timber framing in to the bays, as does the north-west room. The central front room has been truncated by the alteration to the staircase and the lift shaft occupies the position of a former storeroom, but the layout otherwise remains largely intact. Two of the first floor rooms have built in cupboards with carved motifs and ironwork on the hinges and latches. At the north end of the rear extension is a former billiard room on the first floor decorated in a more florid Art Nouveau style, including pilasters framing a former fireplace and fingerplate on the door. The attic floor has a cloakroom containing original tiling, patterned WC and cistern.
Gallery
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