Former Masham Mechanics' Institute

Former Mechanics' Institute, Masham

This former mechanics' institute was built in 1856 to designs by William Perkin of the Leeds architectural practice Perkin and Backhouse. It is constructed in the Victorian Italianate style using coursed limestone with sandstone dressings.

The building comprises a principal range oriented parallel to the street frontage with a domestic range set at right angles to the rear, to the west. Behind these, a further parallel range extends to the rear east and centre, with the eastern half appearing as a two-storey single-room extension and the centre forming the stair hall.

The south front elevation is symmetrical, consisting of two storeys and three bays with a central entrance. The first-floor windows are tall, round-headed sliding sashes with four panes to each sash, set within sandstone surrounds that include aprons. The ground-floor windows are segmentally headed with keystones and have replacement sashes, probably dating to the late 19th century, featuring plate glass lower sashes and smaller divided upper sashes. The central entrance incorporates a stone doorcase with a projecting cornice supported by paired stone consoles and a hardwood part-glazed door of probably late 20th-century date. The elevation is quoined and features a plinth, storey band and cornice supported by shaped stone consoles, above which sits a plain parapet. A date stone reading 1856 is centrally placed, rising above the parapet. The end stacks visible in a contemporary illustration in the London Illustrated News have been lost.

The west elevation presents the gable end of the front range with coped stonework that projects in the form of an open pediment. It is quoined and has a plinth and storey band. Four openings with stone sills and keystoned lintels are present, round-headed to the first floor and flat with segmental soffits to the ground floor; three of these openings are blind and were shown as blind in the original 1856 design. The ground-floor northern window has been converted into a doorway. The west elevation of the rear domestic range is more modest in appearance, consisting of two bays and two storeys with the upper floor slightly lower than that of the front range. Four windows with stone sills and keystoned lintels are present, these being six-over-six hornless sashes except for the northern ground-floor window, which has been altered. The gable end retains its ridge stack.

The east elevation similarly details the gable end of the front range, with centrally placed windows to both ground and first floors matching those of the front elevation. The gable end of the rear range is lower and has a first-floor window matching the domestic part of the west elevation. The ground-floor window has probably been altered with a raised sill; a small modern inserted window is also present on the first floor. The rear of the domestic range, set back, is blind.

The north elevation is blind except for a round-arched stair window at the centre which retains a six-over-six sash window. Below this is a blocked door to the rear yard. Extending eastwards from the north gable of the domestic range is a row of stone-built outbuildings.

The interior of the front range's first floor comprises a single room, originally the lecture hall, featuring a pair of decorated roof trusses. The staircase leading to the hall retains decorative cast-iron balusters. The stair hall is separated from the ground-floor bank by an inserted masonry wall. Cornicing to the ground floor indicates that only one internal wall was removed during the conversion to banking use. This conversion also included insertion of a vault into the rear east room, probably originally a classroom. The rear west range retains panelled interior doors and other period joinery, along with fireplaces complete with cast-iron surrounds. This range is thought to have provided mainly domestic accommodation for the librarian. The ground floor appears to have been laid out as a kitchen with space for a range and a parlour with a hob grate, with the northern upstairs room functioning as a bedroom with another hob grate. The southern upstairs room has cornicing and a higher-status fireplace, and blocked doorways to the lecture hall and main landing suggest it originally served as an ante-room.