Building Name

“The Homestead” 323 Ashgate Road Chesterfield

Date
1903
District/Town
Chesterfield
County/Country
Derbyshire, England
Partnership
Client
Edward R Woodhead
Work
New Build

"The Homestead" stands a few miles out of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire; and being in a district where stone is plentiful it is built of a gritstone quarried in the neighbourhood. This stone has also been used in forming the fire places and ingles, and is left both as the exterior and interior finish of all windows.  The house was placed well back from the high road which runs past the south front; but in order not to sacrifice any of this precious  south front and view to entrances, and to secure it all for the windows of the principal rooms, the drive was taken round to the north side,  and the front door placed in that side, but where it is abundantly  sheltered and protected. Entering this house, then, we come at once into a limb of the great hall. An essential characteristic of such a hall is that no traffic should pass through or across it, or its comfort would be one; but  as the staircase must be in it, and the entrance and many other doors  must open into it, all coming and going must be contrived in a part devoted exclusively to these purposes.

One of the demands of true art is that no convenience or comfort should be sacrificed to effect, so we find this hall is, before all else, comfortable. Part of it is carried to the full height of two stories of the rest of the house. Across one end runs the minstrel gallery with its piano, securing the charm of music coming from a hidden source. The settee in front of one of the fires has all the comfort of a luxurious Chesterfield couch while it retains some of the charm of an old English settle. Most of the furnishing is in the form of oak fixtures and fittings, to which fact is due much of the quietness and restfulness of the whole effect. The floor is of oak blocks laid on concrete, which produces a silent footfall.

The photographs will show how the structure of both building and furniture provides the decoration of this room. Note the stonework of the walls of the ingles, of the windows and fireplaces, and ain how the framing is left showing in the wood-framed partition, which is required to form one wall of the bedroom over the low-ceiled part of the great hall.     In this framed partition is a little window looking down from the bedroom into the hall. Even the smoke flue above the main fireplace stands out in carved stonework from the wall.  In the west wall of the hall is an arch built up for the time being, but arranged to open into a billiard room to be built on at this end of the house. The central part of the fitment on the wall of the hall is so designed that it can be placed in a position prepared for it in the designs for the billiard room when this room is built.

 I was permitted to design all the furniture throughout the house, together with the carpets, the metal work on doors and cupboards, the gas fittings and decoration. The latter is entirely the work of artists' hands, and consists of stone and wood carving, embroidery and metal work. Most of the metal work is in what is known as silveroid, which does not tarnish and is silver-like in colour. Where the walls in this house are plastered they are left rough from the wood float, a little colouring matter being mixed with the plaster. The stonework has been allowed to give the keynote to the interior colour scheme, which is the same throughout the house. The plaster is cream coloured, and forms a pleasant contrast to the peacock blues of the carpets, curtains, and upholsteries.   A house constructed, furnished and decorated as this has been entails practically no expense in redecoration and painting,-the iron-work, of which there is little, and the doors being the only things that require painting outside, and the interior walls, stonework and wood-work needing only occasional cleaning, and nothing requiring renewal. This obviously effects a great annual saving.    The ease with which such a house can be kept clean, and the fact that dusting is reduced to the minimum, may not be noticed by the reader unless pointed out. This is partly the result of using fixed furniture, and furniture designed for its place, partly of leaving construction as decoration, and partly because the scheme having been conceived as a whole is therefore complete, and the temptation to be constantly adding to it is removed.

HOUSE FOR MR. E. R. WOODHEAD, ASHGATE ROAD, CHESTERFIELD, DERBYSHIRE. This house stands on a hill a few miles out of the colliery  town of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. It faces to the road (from which it stands back a considerable way) and to the south; but in order not to  sacrifice any of the precious south front and  view to the entrances, and to reserve it all for the  windows of the principal rooms, the drive is taken  round to the north side of the house, and the front  door is placed at that side, but abundantly sheltered  and protected. Everything shown in the photographs all the furniture, the gas-fittings, metal- work, and decorations has been made to the architects' own designs. In the west wall of the great hall is an arch, built up for the time being, but arranged to open into a billiard-room to be built on at this end of the house. The central part of the fitment on this wall of the great hall is so  designed that it can be placed in a position pre- pared for it in the designs for the billiard-room  when this room is built. The fireplaces in the  great hall are built of local stone. The furniture was made by Eyre &Sons, Chesterfield. The general contractor was John Wright, of Chesterfield.   The stone used was local; the dressings from Peasenhurst, Ashover, and Freeburch, Winger-worth. Carved stone by Earp, Hobbs & Miller, of Manchester. The hand-made roofing tiles came from A. W. Peake, Stoke-on-Trent. The grates to the architects' designs were made by Gates &  Green, of Halifax, and Russell & Co., of Derby.  The ground flooring is of wood blocks. J. P. Steel,  Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, carried out the gas-fittings to architects' own designs, and Lockerbie and Wilkinson, Birmingham, supplied the door  furniture, also to the architects' designs. The leaded lights came from Henry Hope and Sons, Ltd, of Birmingham, and the art metal-work from  the Bromsgrove Guild and from J. P. Steele. [Recent English Domestic Architecture] 

Reference    The Craftsman April 1910 Page 12-13. Barry Parker Number 1