Blackburn Drill Hall

Blackburn Drill Hall

This drill hall was built in 1869-70 to the design of Stevens and Robinson of Derby, and is constructed from buff sandstone with slate roofs. It forms a substantial military complex on the corner of Canterbury Street and Freckleton Street.

The principal structure is a two-storey armoury building of five bays facing south, with a single-storey drill hall extending to the east and other buildings around the parade ground to the north (the twentieth-century buildings around the parade ground were not inspected). The southern front elevation rises two-and-a-half storeys and is built of random-coursed, squared, rock-faced buff sandstone with ashlar dressings. Buttresses frame the symmetrical elevation, which has a sloping plinth and a dentil eaves cornice. The central bay projects slightly and contains a two-centred arched entrance with drip mould and double timber plank doors, above which is a triple-lancet window with transom, and the badge of the 2nd Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps displayed in a gable. Triple lancets flank the central bay, lighting the dining suite, with smaller windows below—one to the left and three to the right. The domestic quarters to the left have a single window per floor with a square eaves window, while the armoury block on the right has similar triple windows at the eaves and first floor, with three small windows at ground floor. The roof is hipped with ridge stacks. The left return is also symmetrical, with flanking buttresses and two windows per floor. The rear elevation features stair windows to both sides and a projecting crenellated tower of three storeys plus an attic stage, with an entrance arch matching the front. The armoury building arches over the passage between front and rear entrances, with identical arches in the centre and identical doorways in each of the four sections of wall created. The doorways have stone surrounds with eared lintels, chamfered with stops at the base of the jambs. The ground floor to the left is partly obscured by later alteration.

The drill hall's northern elevation is partly obscured by later extension, but above this are visible pink sandstone segmental arches of two large openings, one fully exposed beneath a later canopy and infilled with stone and timber double doors, with quoined buff sandstone surrounds. A glazed clerestory runs between the two end bays above a stone coping, punctuated by iron eaves brackets aligned with internal trusses. Towards the right is a stone corbel with attached brickwork. The roof is natural slate with a raised ridge lantern. The eastern elevation is blind, in random rubble with a gable stack and quoined finish. The southern elevation of the drill hall is in the same stone as the armoury block and has a matching clerestory with inserted square windows at ground floor. In the right-hand end bay is a semi-circular-arched entrance with drip mould matching the armoury's entrance, now partly glazed and infilled. To the left are two original windows with an eaves stack above.

The interior contains a cellar in the north-west corner with stone flag floors and shelving, with the kitchen and pantry above having stone flag floors supported by cast-iron T-beams. The guard room to the west of the main entrance retains shutters, built-in shelving either side of the chimney breast, and an Art Nouveau fireplace in an earlier surround. The first-floor bathroom contains a bell-pull and built-in cupboards, and several plaster mouldings, fireplaces and cupboards survive in the bedrooms.

An open-well staircase with late-nineteenth-century lobby survives in the north-west room, with ramped banister and newel pendants, giving onto a landing that accesses the principal suite, probably the officers' mess. A lobby at the first floor of the tower, accessed through the infilled stone archway, is lined with coat-hooks and has decorative skirting and cornice. This gives onto the principal double-height dining room via an ornate doorcase with double doors. The dining room has decorative skirtings, mouldings, frieze and a coved ceiling with two Regency-style ceiling roses set within octagonal surrounds, with brass chandeliers, and a robust black marble fire surround at the west end. Double doors at the east end lead to an adjacent room of half the length with matching skirting, dado rail, fire surround and chandelier. Beyond this is a room that was probably the sergeants' mess, containing a secondary stair accessed from the drill hall balcony via a central door in the east wall. The attic rooms above, also reached by the main stair, retain at least one decorative fire surround. The hall retains its parquet floor and a timber-fronted central balcony at the west end supported on ornate brackets, reached by a steep stair with turned balusters and newels. The roof structure is exposed, of Belgian-truss type with arched ties and ornate corner brackets, and a ridge-purlin with cruciform columns to a lower purlin at tie level. Below the balcony is a wide six-panel timber door with a decorative vermiculated plaque at its base.

The boundary wall along Freckleton Street is of the same stone as the principal buildings, with a Tudor-arched yard doorway adjacent to the headquarters, large square gateposts to the left, and roll-top copings. The stone wall returns east along the River Blakewater, which is canalised here, and has some missing sections on this northern boundary.