Former Local Board Offices

BARROW IN FURNESS

SD2373 STATION ROAD, Dalton In Furness 708-1/11/209 (North East side) 06/05/76 Former Local Board Offices (Formerly Listed as: STATION ROAD, Dalton Council Offices)

GV II

Local board offices now community rooms and council office. Dated 1884. By JY McIntosh. For Dalton Local Board (engraving). Snecked limestone rubble with ashlar sandstone dressings, graduated slate roof. 2 storeys, 1:1:3 bays; bay 1 taller and roofed as a crosswing. Bay 2 is slightly recessed, ashlar faced and has main entrance: panelled double doors with sidelights and 3-pane overlight in moulded ashlar surround under frieze carved with swags and scales of Justice; dentilled cornice. Large casement over, the lintel with 'DALTON LOCAL BOARD/ anno don. 1884' in raised lettering; miniature Flemish gable with niche. Bay 3-5: tripartite windows with stone mullions and sashes with glazing bars; vehicle entrance to bay 5 (now office) has basket arch with raised keystone. Mid-floor cornice on corbel table; 3 gables with blank shields, ashlar copings and ball finials. Bay 1 projects and has 3 sashes with glazing bars beneath stepped string course; large, council-chamber window of 3 lights with stone mullions, transom, moulded surround and iron casements with glazing bars under cornice. Gable has plaque with crown; end dies with ball finials; sections of pierced balustrade link to moulded copings with obelisk finial. Corniced stack rises from parapet on left return. Square clock tower with iron balustrade, louvres beneath the clock faces and leaded ogee roof with weathervane. Main roof has 2 corniced ridge stacks and end stack on right. INTERIOR: lobby screen with floral stained glass; patterned, tiled floor. Staircase with cast-iron balustrade, carved wooden newel and mahogany handrail; stained-glass stair window; coved ceiling. Council chamber (Jubilee Hall): panelled dado, limestone fireplace with incised Tudor-arched lintel, tiling includes 4 pictorial insets; marble plaque above has details of Dalton Board. 4 arch-braced trusses, under-drawn at collar. Contemporary fireplaces in other rooms. Originally intended as a market hall and illustrated with arcaded ground floor in Dalton News, 4.11.1882 (Walton 1984); a photocopy of the same engraving (Cumbria Archives: Barrow) bears the architect's name. The scheme revised to produce offices and fire station as shown in original form in a postcard of 1903 (Walton 1983). The archway gave access to fire station outbuildings in yard to rear (listed separately, qv). (Walton J E: A History of Dalton-in-Furness: 1984-: 82; Local History Photocopy File: Dalton in Furness; Walton J E: Dalton in Furness in Old Picture Postcards: Netherlands: 1983-: PL 61).

Listing NGR: SD2302573963