Electricity Generating House At Orchard House

OLNEY

1115/0/10003 HIGH STREET 14-JAN-09 67 AND 69 Electricity generating house at Orchar d House

GV II Electricity generator house, c.1904. Brick with stone dressings: steeply pitched corrugated iron roof.

EXTERIOR: The west gable end has stone dressings to quoins and openings, and horizontal bands of stone at regular intervals. Below the line of the eaves is a half glazed door, above which is a large pointed arched window with simple tracery in the top half. The south elevation has a long window in the west half, and there is another half glazed door at its east end.

INTERIOR: This is now used for storage. It has a planked partition wall and ceiling. The vestigial remains of electrical wiring survive.

HISTORY: Orchard House was converted from two C18 houses, Nos. 67 and 69 High Street, in 1904 for Joseph William Mann, the boot and shoe manufacturer, at that time Olney's largest employer; the architect was Alexander Ellis Anderson.

The 1882 Ordnance Survey map shows Nos. 67 and 69 High Street, soon to become Orchard House, behind which are a complex of garden boundaries and what appears tp have been an orchard. By 1900 Nos. 67 and 69 had become a single house, although AE Anderson's extensions had not yet been added, and the boundaries to the rear had been removed to form an open space for the new garden. This contains two small buildings, the Thatched Cottage and to the north of that another smaller building, apparently a greenhouse or conservatory. The 1882 OS map also shows a building in this position. This is approximately the location of the building which houses the electricity generator. This seems to have been in use in 1904, and Orchard House was the first dwelling in Olney to be provided with electricity.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The electricity generating house at Orchard House is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Its chapel like form and attention to detail indicate the significance of its purpose, and it is a rare early surviving example of housing for a private electricity generator. It also has group value with the Grade II* listed Orchard House.