Allangate

Allangate, Rochdale Road

A substantial mansion now subdivided into three properties (nos. 112, 114 and 116). The centre block was built by Bernard Hartley around 1810 in Neo-Classical style. A West Wing was added around 1845, followed by a matching East Wing around 1870 for Thomas Shaw MP, who commissioned the celebrated designer Dr Christopher Dresser to remodel and decorate the interior between 1870 and 1873. The building is constructed in thin coursed stone with ashlar dressings and blue-slate roof, comprising two storeys with basement and attics, topped by six tall stone chimney-stacks.

The architectural composition is complex. The Neo-Classical central house has a hipped roof and is flanked by lower narrower bays that form links with the taller wings, which have hipped ends and oversailing roofs. The East Wing (no. 112), set forward, features raised quoins, ground-floor and sill bands, and a single bay of windows with architraves. The rusticated basement has channelled and battered ashlar, with an original doorway set below a French window with stained-glass overlight, consoles and cornice, opening onto a balcony with stone balustrade. Above this is a window with a lintel band forming deep ashlar bracketed eaves, with two lateral chimney stacks to the left-hand return. The right-hand return has a three-bay symmetrical façade with quoined angles fronting a raised garden. A recessed arched doorway with impost and keystone is flanked by tall French windows with overlights and eared architraves, with small round windows on either side. Scars above indicate former lean-to verandah or conservatory. First-floor windows match the front arrangement with architrave and altered glazing. The link section has two tall arched stair windows at mezzanine level. The original house (the central block) projects forward, featuring a segmental two-storey bow with three-light windows to each floor. The ground floor has a central doorway (for no. 116) approached by a short flight of stairs. The outer bay has a tripartite window with a single light above, sill band, quoin pilasters, and bracketed eaves with oversailing roof. A glazed pyramid crowns the central bay projection.

Interior of No. 112

The basement entrance leads to a square Entrance Hall floored with encaustic tiles. The stair to the left, partly blocked off, has panelled sides and painted dado. Above the stairs, at the first half-landing, is a finely sculpted bas-relief roundel depicting a winged female and cherub symbolic of Night. The elevated ground floor contained the Drawing Room, now divided into two. The southern part retains a remarkable decorative scheme by Dresser, featuring an original black marble fireplace with incised gold decoration, blue tiles, and mirrored overmantel with ebonised frame inlaid with a Wedgwood plaque. The northern part has a modern fireplace constructed from parts of the original left-hand recess, whilst the right-hand recess survives intact, both originally intended for plants with friezes in ebonised wood and gold lettering bearing biblical text. The two halves were linked by a wide segmental archway framed by fluted pilasters, now painted cream. The east wall has three French windows with painted and etched glass overlights of botanical subjects, all retaining original black-and-gold lacquered curtain poles. Four stained-glass medallions with ebonised surrounds flank the windows, personifying Morning, Noon, Evening and Night, lit by gas-lighting set behind them at night. The magnificent double coffered ceiling is painted in blue, black and gold with panels decorated with floral patterns in Japanese style. Doors retain enamelled finger-plates and lignumvitae-turned knobs. The stair has half-landings with slender pilasters from which spring arched vaults. The first floor has doorways set within recessed arches, with the landing top-lit by stained-glass panels of abstract design. A curving back-stair is lit by an arched stained-glass window. Two bedrooms retain original black marble fireplaces.

Interior of No. 114

The entrance hall opens to the left through a doorway set within a recessed arch into the original Library. The north wall has a shallow segmental-arched bookcase set between painted Tuscan columns, originally of black marble with gold ornamentation to pediment and capital. Niches for statues flank either side. The ceiling is divided into three panels: the central panel was painted by Dresser in a style resembling an oriental rug and was considered by Dresser himself "to be the most remarkable feature in the whole building, and to be his own veritable masterpiece". The original wall decoration is papered over.

Interior of No. 116

This property contains the right-hand part of the original Dining Room, lit by a large semi-circular bay window with colonettes attached to mullions and an original rail carried by corbels. A black ebonised curtain rail with incised gold decoration stands in front. The room features a richly moulded ceiling cornice and deep moulded skirting board. The original fireplace has been replaced, but the tiled base decorated with quatrefoils survives. Full-height mirrors fill the recesses on either side of the fireplace. The west wall has a wide double-doorway (now blocked) with pilastered surround, formerly leading to the other part of the Dining Room. A cellar beneath the Dining Room contains a stone sink and water-pump, with the back door having a stained-glass overlight.

The Dining Room Chamber above has a canted ceiling to the curved bay-window painted with silver stars on a blue ground (sufficient remains to indicate the pattern), with walls painted purple-brown and a black stencilled dado. It retains a Dresser fireplace in black marble with incised decoration inset with tiles of bold design. A large arched doorway formerly led to a Dressing Room. The main bedrooms opened off a long corridor, now converted to a bathroom, with leaded stained glass set into star designs.

Significance

Dr Christopher Dresser was instrumental in promoting the concept of aesthetic interiors through his publications, including Principles of Decorative Design. Few such interiors have survived intact. Widar Halen's important study of Dresser (1990) describes Allangate as "one of the first aesthetic interiors in Britain". Castles and County Houses in Yorkshire (1885) illustrates and gives detailed description of the house and its contents, emphasising that few houses in Yorkshire, and fewer still in England, were decorated in such excellent taste. The surviving decorative scheme by Dresser is the principal reason for the high grade.