Former Board Of Guardians Offices, South Of Manor Hospital

The Former Board of Guardians Offices, located south of Manor Hospital, is a workhouse board of guardians' office built between 1898 and 1900 by architect Henry E. Lavender of Walsall for the Board of Guardians of Walsall Poor Law Union. The building is constructed of red brick with painted stone dressings and features slate hipped roofs adorned with pierced and crested ridge tiles, along with a corbelled brick eaves cornice. It has brick lateral and axial stacks and a deep rectangular plan that includes an entrance through a tower at the front right corner and a board room at the back on the first floor.

Architecturally, the building is designed in the Jacobethan style and stands two storeys high with an attic. The east front is asymmetrical with a 1:2:1-bay arrangement, featuring a slightly projecting gabled bay on the right that includes 4-light mullion-transom windows. The ground floor window has a stepped head containing a shield, with a shield within a panel in the gable above. The centre of the front has two 2-light mullion-transom windows. The tower at the right corner has a moulded 4-centred arch doorway with an overlight of five small arched lights above, and a large 3-light 4-centred arch window with intersecting tracery. The tower also features a fluted frieze, a 2-light window above, and a lead-clad ogee dome topped with an ornate weathervane finial. There is an aedicule on the right side of the tower with an open pediment and the date inscribed in a shield. The building includes stringcourses at window sill and impost levels, and two small moulded round-headed dormers at the front, while the side and rear elevations are plainer. A ventilator is located over the roof at the rear.

Inside, most original features remain intact, including glazed tile dados, joinery with panelled doors, chimneypieces, and an arched screen in the entrance hall with stained glass. The staircase features an ornate wrought and cast-iron balustrade, a carved newel, and a moulded handrail. The board room on the first floor boasts a moulded plaster panelled coved ceiling and a modillion cornice with an egg-and-dart frieze. The source of this information includes the Borough Surveyor's copy of architect's drawings held at the Walsall Local History Centre.