Pinhill Mess, Catterick Garrison

Officers' Mess, later converted to a Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess, built in 1928 in a restrained Queen Anne style.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of dark red, almost purple brick laid in English bond with bright red brick lintels. It features brick plinths and ashlar dressings, string courses, porch, and central pediment. The windows are timber sashes with exposed sash boxes and slim glazing bars; some facing into the courtyard have been fitted with secondary modern vents and grilles. The building has both hipped and gabled roofs laid in Welsh slate with grey ridge tiles, decorative brick chimney stacks, and a mixture of cast-iron and plastic rainwater goods. The flat roofs have modern asphalt covering.

Plan

The mess has an overall E-shaped plan, almost forming a square around a north-facing courtyard enclosed by a wall. The main range faces south and is flanked by two side wings, with a rectangular billiards room projecting to the rear. The west wing has a rectangular plan, and the east wing has an inverted L-plan. Both wings have projections into the central courtyard occupied by ablutions and latrines.

Exterior

Front Elevation

The main south elevation is symmetrical with a 17-bay main range terminating in slightly projecting pavilions with raised gabled rooflines. The broad central bay is built of Portland stone ashlar blocks and features a semi-circular ashlar porch supported on four Tuscan-style columns raised on a two-step podium laid in terrazzo mosaic tiles with a polychrome lined border. The central doorway has double half-glazed panelled doors beneath a rectangular 12-pane fanlight, flanked by narrow four-light rippled glass windows and engaged Tuscan pilasters. The porch has a moulded architrave and plain frieze with a projecting cornice and low balcony parapet surmounted by mild-steel railings that bulge outwards in a simple decorative fashion, with a bracket supporting a flagpole.

The first-floor balcony is accessed from a central glazed double door beneath a sunburst fanlight, set in a semi-circular arch with stepped extradoses. It is flanked by rusticated corners forming lesenes or pilaster strips that support a deeply moulded open segmental pediment framed to its rear by a pair of brick ridge chimney stacks on the roof.

The central ashlar bay is flanked on each side by eight brick-built bays raised on a brick plinth with ashlar dressings, a plain ashlar string course band, and deep moulded painted timber cornices. The two gabled end bays break forward as pavilions with rusticated brick corners forming lesenes or pilaster strips supporting painted timber pediments, each with a central slatted ventilation oculus set in gauged bricks with ashlar keystones. The ground floor has tall, six-over-six-over-six 18-light sash windows with exposed sash boxes beneath flat arch lintels of gauged brickwork with ashlar keystones and ashlar sills. The first floor is lit by smaller six-over-six timber sash windows without keystones.

Side Elevations

The two-storey, 14-bay west wing and 12-bay east wing project north from the main range. The southern two bays form the side elevations of the pavilions, with timber cornices wrapping around the return walls. Both side elevations have a similar appearance to the main elevation, though they differ in detail. Beyond the pavilions they are set back and stepped down in height, resulting in smaller ground-floor windows matching those of the first floor.

The ground-floor bays immediately adjacent to the pavilions are occupied by recessed opposed doorways at opposite ends of the transverse corridor of the main range. Each doorway has a concrete doorstep flanked by a cast-iron boot scraper. The ground floor of the west range has a further similar recessed doorway two-thirds along its length, and the east range has a blind window space, several barred windows, and two narrow water closet windows at its northern end. A basement light well guarded by wrought-iron spear railings is situated against the east elevation beneath three barred pantry windows. The cellar is lit from the light well by three-barred casement windows with flat ashlar lintels.

Rear and Courtyard Elevations

These are similarly detailed to the side elevations with the same style of windows. The northern return ranges of both the east and west wings function as ablutions blocks. An original single-storey L-plan former outhouse, now a plant room, is built against the ground floor of the north-west corner of the east ablutions block within the re-entrant angle of the brick courtyard wall. The former western return of the plant room has been truncated, leaving a raised concrete floor platform and witness marks as evidence of the former coal, bottle, and kitchen store. The eastern rendered elevation of the plant room is pierced by two windows and a louvred double door. The north elevation, part of the courtyard wall, has a louvred vent, and the structure has an asphalted flat roof.

The courtyard wall extends to an open gateway flanked by a return wall attached to the north-east corner of the west ablutions block. The walls have brick copings laid on edge on tile drip moulds and terminate in two rectangular section gate posts with plain ashlar plinths and bands and tile cap stones. The bases are protected by two cylindrical rubbing stones. The enclosed courtyard is laid in concrete with a central fall and drain.

On the eastern side of the courtyard, a doorway in the west elevation of the ablutions block is flanked to its right by a scullery, a single-storey kitchen, and a wash-up room lit by tall sash windows, some adapted to receive secondary kitchen vents and grilles. Both rooms have flat asphalted roofs and glazed cupolas that top-light the interiors. An open staircase protected by cast-iron railings descends against the kitchen wall to a basement boiler room.

On the southern side, a stair turret with a hipped roof is sandwiched in the left-hand corner between the wash-up room and a projecting single-storey billiard room, which has a flat asphalted roof with a central glazed cupola. The right-hand corner is occupied by a two-storey, flat-roofed ablutions and lavatory block. A two-storey, flat-roofed ablutions block projects from the centre of the west wing, with a doorway in its northern elevation giving access to a service stair hall.

Interior

The entrance porch of the main range leads into a central vestibule and then to an axial corridor aligned east to west, which gives access to the principal rooms. The ante room, bar, and sitting room are to the right and the dining room to the left. The dining room has a parquet floor and is lined with pilasters supporting moulded ceiling beams. The eastern end of the room has a proscenium arch, allowing it to be used for entertainments, marked as 'Band' on an original site plan. The western end of the axial corridor gives access to four ground-floor bed-sitting rooms of the west wing. The eastern end of the corridor gives access to the kitchen and service rooms in the east wing. A doorway directly opposite the entrance hall leads into a rectangular-plan, side and top-lit billiard room.

The main staircase is offset to the right of the central vestibule, with an open stair well accessed directly off the axial corridor. The 1960s staircase has mild-steel plain balusters spaced by slender open parallelogram-shaped panels decorated with repeating V-shaped flat bar struts, with a plain timber newel post, moulded timber handrail, and a plywood string.

The staircase leads to the first-floor main axial corridor with a series of bed-sitting rooms on its southern side and a larger bedroom at each end within the corner pavilions. A short staircase at the western end, protected by a balustrade with plain wrought-iron balusters and a moulded timber handrail, descends to the level of the west-wing corridor. The first-floor west-wing corridor is aligned north to south with bedrooms and a box room on its western side and ablutions and latrine blocks to the eastern side. The central ablutions block has a plain 1920s staircase with wrought-iron balusters, painted handrail, and concrete steps, while the other two blocks have a utility room each.

The first floor of the east wing has a similar arrangement and its axial corridor is also approached by a short flight of steps, with bed-sitting rooms and a box room on the eastern side, and an ablutions block with a utility room and a box room at its northern end. A plain 1920s staircase also leads down within the ablutions block to the courtyard.

There are no original fireplaces remaining and some of the rooms have been reconfigured, but much character is brought to the interior by the original moulded skirtings, dado, picture rails, and the moulded plaster cornices. Several panelled skylights remain, lighting the billiard room, kitchen, and the wash-up room.

Exclusions

The attached bicycle shelter, detached garage block to the north-east, internal fire door partitions, and the late 20th-century internal room dividers in the first-floor bedrooms are not of special architectural or historic interest.