Edgerton Hill, including boundary wall, gate piers, former kitchen garden walls and outbuildings, Huddersfield, Kirklees

Summary

Villa of around 1820 in a classical style with late-C19 and C20 alterations.

Description

Villa of around 1820 in a classical style with late-C19 and C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: sandstone, stone slate and slate.

PLAN: Edgerton Hill is a roughly U-shaped two-storey villa set back from the south-east side of Edgerton Road. The principal rooms are to the south and east (garden) ranges, with the main entrance to the south. To the west is the service and coach house range. There is a basement below the east range.

EXTERIOR:
The main south elevation is of two storeys with three symmetrical bays of ashlar stone with a plinth, moulded eaves cornice and blocking course, and hipped stone slate roof. On the ground floor is a central, projecting porch (late C19) with entablature and fielded-panel double doors with semi-circular fanlight flanked by Ionic columns with an open triangular pediment. Fixed to the right-hand side of the doorway is a brass plaque with the inscription: ASSOCIATION OF / UKRAINIANS / IN GREAT BRITAIN LTD / HUDDERSFIELD BRANCH. Both sides of the porch have a round-headed window with moulded imposts, voussoirs and giant keystone. Flanking the porch are two vertical, square-headed windows, with three similar, though shorter, windows on the first floor; all windows have one-over-one pane horned sashes.

Attached to the left-hand side and slightly recessed is a range of two bays and two storeys. It is built of narrower coursed, dressed stone, also with a plinth, moulded eaves cornice and blocking course. The roof is stone slate and is hipped to the right with a gable to the left, outer side. There are two similar, square-headed windows on the ground and first floors. Set back and attached on the left-hand side is the south end of a service and coach house range, which runs at right angles to the south range. It is also built of narrower, coursed, dressed stone with a hipped, slate roof. An upper doorway is reached by a metal external staircase attached parallel to the wall.

The east elevation (garden elevation) is ashlar stone with a plinth, moulded eaves cornice and blocking course. It is of two storeys with a semi-subterranean basement and five bays with a broad, full-height semi-circular second bay with three square-headed windows on both floors. There are similar square-headed windows on both floors to the first, third, fourth and fifth bays. All windows are one-over-one pane horned sashes. At basement level there are segmental-arch windows to the second, third, fourth and fifth bays. Attached to the right-hand corner is a projecting, single-storey billiard room (late C19) of coursed, rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and a hipped slate roof with roof lights. The central doorway is flanked by slim, square-headed windows.

The west elevation of the service and coach house range is of two storeys and narrow, coursed dressed stonework. It has irregularly spaced square-headed windows to the ground and first floor, one of which has a stone surround, and a small circular window. Attached to the left is a C20 single-storey lean-to structure, also of coursed dressed stonework with a slate roof.

The rear elevations are also of narrow, coursed dressed stonework with stone gutter brackets. To the ground and first floor are a series of square-headed windows with one-over-one and two-over-two pane horned sashes, some of which have stone surrounds. There is also a large circular window with a stone surround to the first floor of the service and coach house range. A section of the ground-floor wall to the east range is supported by an iron beam on two stone imposts and a central column with capital. Now blocked, this section of the elevation would originally have been open, forming a loggia. The billiard room has a prominent hexagon chimney and three, one-over-one pane etched glass horned sashes.

INTERIOR:
Ground floor: the porch has an inlaid marble floor and opens into an entrance and staircase hall with three principal rooms, two to the east and a smaller room to the west. The entrance hall is divided by an arch with moulded pilasters and imposts, and has moulded cornicing and dado rails. The doorcases have moulded architraves and tall, projecting cornices. The open string staircase incorporates two quarter turns and has decorative ironwork balusters and a timber swept handrail ending in an end spiral on a curtail step. The one quarter landing has a niche which now contains two large plaques. The upper plaque commemorates the Holodomor and has an English and Ukrainian inscription which reads: HOLODOMOR 1932-33 / IN MEMORY OF THE MILLIONS OF INNOCENT / VICTIMS OF THE ENFORCED / FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE ENGINEERED BY JOSEPH STALIN. The lower plaque commemorates the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, also with an English and Ukrainian inscription: 988 - 1988 / MILLENNIUM / OF /CHRISTIANITY IN UKRAINE / UNVEILED BY THE MAYOR OF KIRKLEES / COUNCILLOR JOHN C. HOLT / UNVEILED ON 1ST OCTOBER 1988. / COMMEMORATED BY / THE UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY / IN HUDDERSFIELD.

The principal rooms, which have ornate cornicing, are utilised as function rooms by the Ukrainian Club. A bar area has been inserted into the southernmost room of the east range, which is dual aspect and faces east and south, with the semi-circular bay to the east. The northernmost room faces east and was knocked through to the billiard room in the 1970s to form one large performance space with a stage. This room has a loggia, which has since been blocked in and subsumed into the main body of the room. The billiard room, added in the late C19, retains its original entrance with moulded cornicing. It is open to the roof and has a series of roof lights to the south. Initially used by the Association of Ukrainians as a chapel, the roof of the billiard room was painted in the mid-late C20 with religious images.

The smaller south-facing room is knocked through with an adjacent room in the south range, which has moulded cornicing and two niches either side of a chimneystack at the west end. The former servants’ staircase is in a passage adjoining this room and has a straight flight open string with a winder at the bottom and slim balusters. There are also several fitted cupboards to this passage. The C20 single-storey extension to the north of the south range was probably built to house an above-ground kitchen. The northern part of the service and coach house range is now used as a garage and workshop, with some wooden panelling and shelving to the west wall.

First floor: the main landing leads to a series of principal bedrooms facing east and south. It is divided by three arches with moulded pilasters and imposts, and has moulded cornicing and a large, octagonal roof light. The bedrooms have moulded cornicing, picture rails, C19 fireplace surrounds, and six-panelled doors with architraves. The rooms to the west are much plainer in style and many have been modernised, although a number retain moulded cornicing, fireplace surrounds, six-panelled doors with moulded architraves, as well as fitted cupboards.

Basement: the basement extends below the east range and is accessed from a straight flight of stairs below the main staircase. There is also an external access into the courtyard. It retains several original kitchen and storage features including stone floors, coal chutes, a large fireplace surround (now truncated by an inserted wall), stone cold slabs, and wine racks.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES:
A stone boundary wall surrounds the house and gardens. The entrance to Edgerton Road is of curved ashlar stonework with moulded copings and ashlar stone gatepiers. The left hand pier is inscribed with: EDGERTON, and the right hand pier: HILL. To the north of the villa is a series of walls with a single-storey outhouse at the south-east end which would have once demarked a kitchen garden. The walls are stone to the outer face with regularly-spaced pilasters and brick to the inner face.

History

Edgerton Hill was built around 1820 by linen draper Frederick Hudson. He died in 1824 and was succeeded in ownership by general merchant John Haigh and (Methodist) brewer Thomas Wilson. By 1839 it had passed into the ownership of the Armitage family of Milnsbridge. They remained there until 1923 when it was sold to the Crowther family, who were well-known Colne Valley mill-owners. In the early 1880s a porch and a billiard room were added to the house, designed by architect Edward Hughes. Edgerton Hill is first shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1851 and is set within generous landscaped gardens with walled gardens directly to the north of the main house. By 1893, the Ordnance Survey map shows that a series of glasshouses had been erected in the walled gardens, along with a large conservatory to the south side of the house (since removed). In the C20 a small extension was added to the north side of the house.

The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) Huddersfield Branch purchased Edgerton Hill from the Crowther family in 1964 and opened it as the Huddersfield Ukrainian Club in 1965. In the late 1960s it had 230 registered members with their families. In 2018, a large slate memorial was erected in the grounds marking 70 years of the Ukrainian Community in Huddersfield (1948 to 2018). In 2019, a Pétanque court was built within the walled gardens.

The first notable migration from Ukraine to England was in the late C19 and early C20 when several hundred people from western Ukraine settled in Manchester. Although most of them had either returned to Ukraine or relocated to the USA or Canada by the outbreak of the First World War, a small community remained in the city. After the Second World War around 35,000 Ukrainians came to the United Kingdom, including many former soldiers and other displaced persons. Many were recruited into the European Volunteer Workers Scheme, which addressed labour shortages by offering paid employment in industry and agriculture. Most of these post-war migrants remained here, and they and later generations of their families formed Ukrainian communities in towns and cities across England, with concentrations in London, Manchester, West Yorkshire and the East Midlands.

More immigration occurred after the loosening of restrictions in (and later, the collapse of) the Soviet Union. By around 2005 there were estimated to be 100,000 Ukrainians in the United Kingdom. The ongoing conflict with Russia, which escalated in 2022, has brought (to date) around a further 160,000 refugees here. As Ukrainian communities have developed, they have often shared or adapted existing buildings to create spaces for worship, education, cultural celebrations and community activities.

Reasons for Listing

Edgerton Hill, Huddersfield, built around 1820, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the quality of the design as an early-C19 villa built in a classical style;

* the readability of the building’s early-C19 plan form, including the former basement kitchen, service and coach house range, former loggia, and a late C19 billiard room;

* a range of interior fixtures and fittings survive including staircases, doors, ornate plasterwork, and an octagonal roof light;

* its use as a Ukrainian Club from the mid-C20 has remained sensitive to these features, while also incorporating ceiling paintings to the late-C19 billiard room and commemorative plaques.

Historic interest:
* as a reflection of the growth of the Ukrainian Community in the North of England in the mid- to late C20.

Group value:
* with nearby Grade II listed villas that all contribute to the character of the Edgerton Conservation Area.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.