Building Name

The Nazareth Home, Ashton Road, Lancaster

Date
1898 - 1902
Street
Ashton Road
District/Town
Lancaster
County/Country
Lancashire, England
Partnership
Work
New build

THE NAZARETH HOME, LANCASTER - A new home in Ashton-road, Lancaster, has been erected by the Order of the Sisters of Nazareth, whose headquarters are at Hammersmith, London. Provision is made for 250 children, but as far as the accommodation will allow the beneficence of the Order will be extended to a few old men and aged women. It is a home for destitute children, strictly speaking for girls, as boys are provided for by the Order at Ditton Hall, in the South. The new buildings are approached by a drive through an entrance gateway situated in Ashton-road. The main front, which faces south-east, has a projecting gable flanked by angle buttresses and having a niche over the doorway containing the figure of St. Joseph; above the niche is an oriel window. At each end of the main front are projecting wide gables, with two stone dormers between on each side of the entrance gable. At the north-east end is a projecting octagonal-ended apse to the chapel, and at the south-west end is a secondary staircase gabled against the main block. Entering through the vestibule, 10 feet wide, a corridor, 8 feet wide, is reached, which runs longitudinally through the building. On one side are the chapel and sacristy, sitting-room, schoolroom, and workroom; on the other a large dayroom, sisters' dining-room and pantry, main staircase, and men’s sitting-room and dormitory. Corridors also branch off to the kitchen wing and also to the offices and bathroom blocks and garden entrances. The kitchen and scullery are 25 feet and 21 feet 6 in. long by 19 feet wide respectively, and each have access to a corridor from out of which open stores. The first floor is divided by similar corridors to the ground floor, with women's and sisters’ dormitory, women’s refectory, linen room, guest room, sisters’ day room, &c. On the second floor the same scheme of main corridors is repeated, with the various dormitories, babies’ day room, children’s clothes store, bathroom, etc., opening out of the same, and the offices are in cut-off blocks, one to each side. The basement contains play room, lavatory, and changing-rooms, and various cellars, and heating chamber. The kitchen wing is all one story. The buildings are of stone lined with brick, and the roofs are covered with green slates. The corridors have tiled floors of fireproof construction. The staircases of stone are also fireproof, and with glazed brick dados running round both staircases and corridors. The laundry and washhouse block, which is a detached block, standing some distance to the north-east of the main building, is a one-story building, with a receiving-room, washhouse, and laundry, together with stable, loft, and piggery. The buildings are in the Tudor style, with mullioned and transomed windows. The work has been carried out by the following contractors :— B. Graham & Sons, Huddersfield; the carpenters’ work was mainly executed by Mr. T. Hird, of Keighley, who was the original contractor, and the joinery has been done by Messrs. J. Hatch & Sons, of Lancaster; slaters' work by Messrs. Hill & Nelson, of Morecambe ; plasterers’ work by Mr. O. Lister, Ilkey ; plumbers’ work and electric lighting by Messrs. Calvert & Heald of Lancaster; heating by Messrs. Dilworth and Carr, of Preston ; cooking appliances by Messrs. Newton, Chambers, & Co., of Manchester ; and laundry fittings by Messrs. Bradford & Co., Salford. The buildings have been erected from designs by and under the superintendence of Messrs. Austin & Paley, of Lancaster. The outlay on the new home has been £15,000. [Builder 22 February 1902 page 191-192]

Reference           Builder 22 February 1902 page 191-192