Birley Spa

Birley Spa

A spa and hotel, later a community centre, built between 1842 and 1843 for the second Earl Manvers by an architect whose name is not recorded. The building underwent alterations in the later 19th century and was converted to a community centre between 2001 and 2002 by Peter Pace.

The building is constructed into a hillside that slopes down to the north, creating an unusual section. The south side presents a single storey, while the north side has two storeys: a ground floor and a lower ground floor. The walls are painted render with ashlar dressings. The roofs are now covered in modern Decra metal sheet, replacing the original Welsh slate, and feature two coped stone ridge stacks with quadruple octagonal flues.

The five-bay south elevation is single-storey. The central three bays step slightly forward beneath a hipped roof with deep eaves finished in timber soffits, while the outer bays have moulded stone gutters. The first bay contains a square-headed timber door with Gothick tracery. The remaining four bays have square-headed windows with stone sills, now fitted with modern metal shutters replicating the original timber frames with Gothick tracery, which have replaced cast-iron frames recorded in the 1973 listing. The east and west end bays have shouldered, shaped gables with central stone quatrefoil windows, moulded stone coping, and gadrooned urns on square bases at the outer corners; similar urns crown the gable apexes. Both end elevations contain a square-headed doorway and a central square-headed window with modern metal shutters and timber Gothick tracery frames.

The north elevation comprises five bays across two storeys, divided by a moulded stone string course. It mirrors the south elevation in having three central bays that step forward beneath a hipped roof with deep eaves and timber soffits. On the lower ground floor, the first bay opens to a loggia through a wide square-headed opening fitted with a modern Gothick tracery metal screen and gate. The fifth bay is partially obscured by a flight of external steps; at the foot of these steps is a square-headed doorway with a timber door with Gothick tracery, and a square-headed window occupies the bay centre. The remaining bays on both floors contain similar windows with stone sills and modern metal shutters with timber Gothick tracery frames. The two floors do not interconnect internally; access to the lower ground floor is via external steps and a narrow path alongside the west elevation.

The lower ground floor centres on a large room containing an oval plunge bath lined in stone with double stone steps at each end. The spring inlet is at the east end and the outlet at the west end. The floor is stone flagged with a deep modern stone skirting and stone-faced dado with moulded timber dado rail. The ceiling is coffered. A two-panelled door in the centre of the west wall provides access. To the east lies a stone-flagged loggia with doorways opening into the plunge bath room and into a smaller room in the south-east corner; both doorways have moulded timber architraves and timber doors with Gothick tracery. The small room has a stone-flagged floor, a north-facing window with timber Gothick tracery frame overlooking the loggia, a chimney breast with square fireplace and stone surround in the west wall, and an opening in the south-east corner leading to a small brick barrel-vaulted cellar containing a stone table on its north side. A doorway with an iron rolled steel joist lintel in the east wall opens into a second small brick barrel-vaulted cellar; the damp south-east corner is where the spring enters the building. At the west end of the lower ground floor are two stores, while the main entrance is at the west end of the ground floor, opening into a lobby with WCs, a large central room, and a kitchen and store to the east. The ground floor fixtures and fittings date from the 2001 to 2002 restoration.