New Headquarters & Drill Hall, Bradshawgate Bolton

LISTING TEXT - SILVERWELL HOUSE  BRADSHAWGATE, BOLTON - House, later part of drill hall, now part of leisure centre.  1790, for John Pilkington, a cotton manufacturer.  Brick, painted to former front elevation, with slate roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 3-window range, with central entrance.  Pedimented doorcase to this entrance (now disused), with 12-pane sash window over. Flanking full-height canted bays with sash windows. Rear elevation has irregular fenestration,  and main doorway to left of centre, a 6-panelled door in  moulded wood architrave with flat entablature. Subsidiary  doorway inserted and in added porch to left. Round arched stair windows above the main doorway, and a similar round arched window at an intermediate height to secondary stairs to  left. 12-pane sash windows in attic storey, other windows  4-pane sashes or renewed in original openings. All windows have flat arched brick heads and stone sills. Moulded eaves  cornice. End wall stacks.  INTERIOR: not inspected.

The former front of the building is now largely contained within a drill hall which was built in 1887. When  this was built for the 3rd Volunteer Brigade, Lancashire Division of the Royal Artillery, the house itself became the  armoury, stores, canteen lecture hall, offices etc. The architect of the drill hall, and hence of the modifications to  the house, was Captain Marshall Robinson. The drill hall itself has been extensively reconstructed since its original  construction (when it was thought locally to be the largest  covered drill shed in Britain), and is excluded from the  listing.

Reference    The Building News 12 November 1886 – with illustration
Reference    Bolton Journal, August 6th, 1887
Reference    Bolton; Bolton and District Civic Trust: Buildings of Bolton: Bolton: 1983