Description

HELMSLEY

336/0/10005 BUCKINGHAM SQUARE
06-AUG-07 3&4

II
Former estate workers' cottages for the Duncombe Park Estate. Mid C19, possibly by Sir Charles Barry. Coursed, dressed sandstone with Westmorland slate roof laid to diminishing courses.

PLAN
Mirrored pair of semi-detached cottages that are single storey with attics with a shared central stack. The cottages are single fronted and were also originally single depth but are extended to the rear. The front entrances are either end of the front elevation, the rear entrances (now internal doors to the extensions) are towards the centre. Stairs rise from the rear entrances parallel to the rear wall, with a quarter wind at the top.

EXTERIOR
Front
The cottages have broad fronts with 3-light cross mullioned and transomed ground floor windows with 2-light mullioned and transomed dormer windows above. The lower lights of all the windows are divided into 1 over 1 with fine glazing bars, the upper lights on the ground floor into 2 over 2, with each of the dormer upper lights divided into two by a single vertical glazing bar. The front doors are original and distinctive with gothic stylised joinery with panels in the form of a pair of infilled lancet windows. The doors retain very small C19 letter boxes. The doors and ground floor windows all have Tudor style hoodmoulds. The shared central stack is moulded stone ashlar, lozenge shaped in plan, with 4 flues in line at right angles to the frontage.

West gable
The west (Right-hand) gable end has single mullioned and transomed windows to both ground floor and attic that are similar to the dormer windows, but both covered with Tudor style hoodmoulds.

East gable
The east (Left-hand) gable end has timber casement windows to ground floor and attic with no hoodmoulds. The stonework of the gable end is also more roughly dressed than that of the front.

Rear
The rear is obscured by C20 lean-to brick extensions under a pantile roof. However internally to this extension the back doorway and the mullioned casement window lighting the stair still remain in situ.

INTERIOR
Both cottages retain a chamfered spine beam supporting floor joists exposed to the ground floor rooms. They also each retain some plank doors and built-in C19 cupboards in addition to the original pegged purlin roof structure.

HISTORY
In 1843, William Duncombe, the second Baron Feversham, altered the entrance to Duncombe Park from Helmsley, moving the entrance gates slightly further into the parkland and constructing a gate lodge at the south western end of Buckingham Square. The gate lodge is accredited to the architect Sir Charles Barry and shares architectural details with 3 and 4 Buckingham Square which are known to have been built by the Duncombe Estate. Numbers 3-4 Buckingham Square are thought to have been built around 1843, along with the remodelling of 34 & 36 Castlegate, to flank the approach to the park entrance. The cottages are shown on the 1856 1:10560 Ordnance Survey map. Some time between the 1912 and 1979 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps, the cottages were extended to the rear.

SUBSIDUARY ITEM
At the back of the garden to No.3 there is a small, 2 celled brick outbuilding with a pan tiled roof that is thought to have been the original outside toilet.

REASON FOR DESIGNATION
Numbers 3-4 Buckingham Square are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* As well preserved mid C19 estate workers' cottages given an effective picturesque architectural treatment
* For their visual contribution to the main approach to the Grade 1 Registered Duncombe Park and the Grade 1 Listed house
* For the possible association with the nationally significant architect Sir Charles Barry.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671429

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)