Swinden House

Swinden House

This large house, formerly known as Red House, stands on the east side of Moorgate Road in Rotherham. It was designed by architect E F C Clarke around 1880 for T W Badger, a member of the Rotherham Advertiser family, and later converted to offices and a conference centre. The building retains its original character despite 20th-century additions.

The house is constructed of thinly-coursed sandstone on the ground floor with red brick in English bond above, ashlar dressings, terracotta cornices and parapets, and red tile roofs. It is designed in Jacobethan style with an H-shaped plan where the central part is largely infilled by a front range with a double-roofed block to the rear. The building is two storeys with attics, arranged as 1:3:1 bays to the garden front, with the entrance in the left return.

The garden front features a plinth and ground-floor quoins. The windows are ovolo-mould mullioned and transomed with renewed casements. Two first-floor string courses and a two-course ashlar band mark the mid-height of the first floor. The wing projections each contain a two-storey bay window with paired two-light windows with two transoms and carved apron panels beneath, with similar single-transomed first-floor windows above. These wings have dentilled cornices and balustrades topped with ball finials. Wing gables each display a two-light window beneath a pedimented feature, with ball finials and ovolo-profiled foot to the gable copings with iron apex finials. The recessed central bays feature a single-storey projection to bay 4 with a doorway (now a window) in the left return and a four-light window having a king mullion and two transoms, with a small three-light transomed window above. The central bay contains paired cross-windows to each floor, with a dentilled cornice above the upper window and two single-light windows to a finialled gable. Bay 2 has small windows. A dentilled cornice and balustrade sit above bays 2 and 4. The front roof slope above bay 2 displays a stack with a quoined base and grouped octagonal flues with a corbelled top; projecting end stacks follow the same style.

The left return presents a balanced elevation with an elaborate doorway near the centre in a slight projection. The doorway is reached by steps leading to 20th-century double doors within a round archway flanked by pilasters with ribbed panels. The doorway features well-carved foliage on alternate voussoirs, a projecting keystone, spandrels with foliate capitals, and a frieze topped by a modillioned cornice with blocking course and attached ball finials. Flanking cross-windows have cornices. A transomed three-light window sits above the doorway and a four-light mullioned window sits in a finialled gable. To the right of the door projection is a large four-light stair window with a king mullion and two transoms. A lateral stack in slight projection stands to the right, with eaves cornice and stacks matching the front elevation.

Interior features include painted glass panels in the overlight of the lobby screen. The entrance hall has oak-panelled dado with six-panel doors in original architraves. An oak-panelled dining room opens off the hall. The staircase is of good oak construction with helical-turning to the balusters. The library contains a large ashlar fireplace archway with keyed voussoirs and good plaster ceilings with enriched cornices.

T W Badger, a member of a notable Rotherham legal family, disappeared in 1882. The sale of the house contents is described in the Rotherham Advertiser of 16 September 1882. Badger's monogram is preserved on some gable apex finials. Together with George Wood, E F C Clarke was responsible for the design of offices built for Messrs Badger and Rhodes, which still stand lower down Moorgate (now occupied by Pushley and Hodgkinson). A drawing of these offices is held in the Archives and Local Studies section of Rotherham Central Library. The 20th-century additions to the right return and rear left are not of special interest.