Summary

A sports pavilion, built c1924 to designs by John Ramsay Armstrong, set on the playing fields of the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory, Bournville.

Description

A sports pavilion, built c1924 to designs by John Ramsay Armstrong, set on the playing fields of the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory, Bournville.

MATERIALS: the building has rendered and colourwashed brick walls with a hipped green pantile roof.

PLAN: two storeys. The building has a taller central section with wings set in line projecting at either side. The projecting, single-storey range on the road front has gradually been formed by a series of additions.

EXTERIOR: the south-eastern side faces over a sloping lawn which leads to the boating lake. It is tripartite and symmetrical. The central section of seven wide bays has a higher ridge and projects forward of the narrower, lateral wings. At ground floor level are French windows with arched fan lights above and at either end of this central section are projecting staircase turrets with porthole windows below their gabled roofs. The spandrels between the ground-floor fanlights have brackets which support a cornice, above which is the balustrade of a central, first-floor balcony with brick piers and tile panels. First floor windows to the rear of the balcony have had their sills dropped and have been replaced with uPVC units, set below the eaves. To the centre of the ridge is a clock turret with a gabled roof. At either side are four-bay, recessed wings which have relieving arches above the ground floor windows and louvered shutters.

The north-western, road front is also symmetrical and has a projecting, single-storey portion to the centre. This has two and four-light casements with wooden shutters. Wings project forward slightly at either end. Doors are placed in the flank walls of the block. All phases of the addition share the materials of the older building, with pantiled rood and pebbledashed and colourwashed walls. First-floor windows on the principal block are behind and above the extension, of tripartite form and set close to the deep eaves front. Their sills have not been dropped as on the south-east front. Gabled staircase turrets, similar to those on the south-east front are set at either side and beyond them the two-storey wings, which follow the line of the central pavilion, each have four bays, with louvered shutters, at ground floor level, as on the garden front.

INTERIOR: the principal interior space is the large function room which extends for the full length and depth of the central pavilion at ground floor level. It has wood block flooring and two aisles with panelled, square pillars, which have metal hooks above head height to allow for fixing canvas screens to form temporary changing rooms. To the south-east side are seven sets of French windows which lead out onto the terrace, overlooking the lake. Hatches in the north-western wall lead to a kitchen and bar, which are housed in the later extension. At the north-east end of the room is a double staircase, one arm of which leads up to the balcony overlooking the gardens and the other to the first floor offices and storage space. The wing extending to the south-west of the assembly room contains former changing rooms, now converted to offices, and a shower room at ground floor level and the north-eastern wing appears to have been similarly arranged, but has now been opened up to create a cafe and kitchen.

Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the range to the centre of the north-western, road front, added in the later C20, and housing the bar and service corridor, is not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

The Rowheath sports ground was developed for the workforce of the Cadbury's factory at Bournville. By 1919 the factory workforce approached 7,500 in number and the Bournville Village Trust began development of a further 75 acres of land at Row Heath Farm, west of the factory. The ground opened in July 1924 and included 14 soccer pitches, 13 cricket pitches, four hockey and two rugby football grounds with 31 tennis courts an athletics track and a boating and fishing lake. To accommodate all of these activities on the site a large pavilion was built that included changing rooms for 450 players, as well as recreation and reception rooms. The design was by John Ramsay Armstrong who placed the building on the highest point of the playing field site.

Ordnance Survey maps show that the projecting wing at the centre of the north-west front has gradually grown from a thin central projection in 1937 to a wider extension across the front in 1966 to its present form, extending to the full width of the central block by 1980.

In the early 1980s 65 acres of land were sold off and the pavilion is now leased (August 2016) to the Trinity Christian Centre Trust.

Reasons for Listing

The Rowheath Sports Pavilion is statutorily listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural quality: the design, by John Ramsay Armstrong, combines a building which is functionally highly adaptable to a variety of uses with a sense of festivity, appropriate to a sports pavilion which also served as a venue for company functions and dances;
* Intact survival: despite some alterations, which are relatively minor and to be expected from a building of this date and type, the pavilion has retained the principal outlines of its original plan and structure.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q66477959

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)