Watson Fothergill Virtual Walk: Fothergill’s Buildings in Mansfield, 8 February 2022, 7 pm. Tickets £5 +booking fee
Thanks to everyone who has taken part in a Watson Fothergill Walk this year, also to all those who have sent messages about Fothergill’s buildings – I’ve written up reports of some visits on my blog, with more to come soon! If you live in a Fothergill or have memories of working in one of the buildings, do email me!
The architect Watson Fothergill, or as he was known until 1892, Fothergill Watson, was born in 1841 in Mansfield, Notts. He had many connections in his home town and some of his buildings can still be found there.
I have been working on an introduction to these buildings in the form of a “Virtual Walk”, a new illustrated Zoom talk that will take place on 8 February 2022 at 7 pm, tickets £5 (plus booking fee). Join me to learn more about the buildings that remain and those that have been lost.
If you missed out on the original Watson Fothergill Virtual Walk, there will be another chance to join me for the Zoom version of my walking tour on 20 January 2022 at 7 pm. If you can’t attend these events “live” then a recording will be made available to ticket holders afterwards.
Meanwhile… in-person walks will be back in Spring 2022. If you’d like to cover the cost of a walk, or to purchase tickets as a gift, vouchers are delivered by email.
Meanwhile if you haven’t already, make sure your email is on the mailing list to receive all the latest news and walk dates as soon as they’re finalised!
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to be invited to explore Fothergill buildings. The latest of these was The Red House, on Cator Lane, Chilwell.
From the road, The Red House has a distinctive chimney that stands out from the surrounding buildings… Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The Red House is listed in the Fothergill Catalogue as a “Minor Work”, as it was not originally built by the architect. However, the additions he made to the property are quite extensive.
With its very tall chimney and red bricks, The Red House stands out amid the 1930s suburban semis that make up the rest of the street. Indeed, for a long time the original house (then called Hill House) was the only building on this part of Cator Lane, it is visible on maps from around 1850 – it may have been built even earlier, around 1840 from the style of the windows in the original parts of the house.
The Red House from the back, which is now the front.. the porch is a modern addition. Photo: Lucy BrouwerThe “front” of The Red House, Fothergill’s extension includes the porch and landing above, the large bays over two floors, bay windows added to the original rooms and possibly the attic rooms. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The plans for Fothergill’s alterations were submitted in October 1895, approved in November and presumably carried out shortly after. The extension is shown on the 1900 OS map of the area. After the work, the house is called “The Red House” on maps and it is apparently the only substantial dwelling on Cator Lane until about 1930. I’ve found advertisements in newspapers from 1933 offering houses for sale (for £550 per house) on The Red House Estate on Cator Lane, most of the houses nearby look as if they were built around this date.
1933 advert in The Long Eaton Advertiser for The Red House Estate
Ian, the present owner of The Red House, gave me a tour and told me what he knows about the history of the building.
The house had been a parsonage and the client for the extension work was Frederic Chatfield Smith (1824-1905) of Bramcote Hall, at one time an MP for the area and the head of Smiths Bank in Nottingham. However, Smith did not live in the house.
There is a plaque commemorating Smith in the nearby Christ Church in Chilwell, he endowed the church but this wasn’t until 1903. He was known for his charitable work as his obituary in Nottingham Evening Post, 22 April 1905 notes:
“He manifested a warm interest in religious and philanthropic work, being an ever-generous subscriber to charitable and other institutions. He was a patron of the living of Bramcote with Attenborough, and he exercised discriminating influence in church matters.”
So did Frederick Chatfield Smith extend the house to encourage a new vicar to move to Chilwell? It seems that after the improvements the house remained as a small farm, with a quantity of pasture land and some animals. Ian has an advertisement that describes the house when it was offered for auction in the 1920s.
Auction notice for the house from circa 1921-22. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
I’ve found that in 1864, the house had been lived in by the then late Joseph Morris – cited in a marriage announcement for his sixth daughter Pattie.
In 1889, the householder was The Rev. James Crabtree – so it was presumably still a parsonage at this point.
After the extension was added, I’ve found a few of the residents and some information:
Around 1898-1899 G.W. Baxter, his wife, son and daughters can be found at the house. Baxter and family rode with the Earl of Harrington’s hunt in 1898, and in April 1899 GW Baxter could be found selling a horse at the Black Boy Repository (behind the hotel?) in Nottingham. In November 1899, both he and his servants donated to the Shilling Fund.
Brigadier General Charles Tyrell Shipley CB (1863-1933) was another resident of the Red House. I’ve found a couple of photographs of him: here in uniform and here as a younger man, and something of his war record, he seems to have had an illustrious military career, commanding the 46th North Midlands Division and according to his obituary in the Nottingham Evening Post (13 Nov 1933) he lived at The Red House “before the war” (WW1).
Newspaper classified ads are another way of discovering who lived in a house. Between 1915-1918, the Barnett family various posted notices for the sale of a Great Dane puppy, an appeal to find their lost Airedale bitch, Jessie, and a “wanted ad” for a Daily Help or a good cook-general.
In both September 1919 and December 1921 the house was part of a selection of properties and land up for auction (in 1921 the tenant was cited as Mr W. Lucas). I believe the poster Ian showed me (pictured above) is from around this time.
23 Jan 1926, Nottingham Evening Post. (British Newspaper Archive). More Pigs For Sale from the Harrisons at The Red House.
Between 1923 and 1933 Kennedy William Harrison and his family were resident in the house – for several years running they annually offer for sale a litter of pigs (there was a pigsty outside the house, which is still recognisable among the outbuildings) as well as a litter of retriever puppies and “50 second season fowls in full lay” (Present owner Ian’s lockdown project was to install a small coop with hens!).
There are also reports of Mrs Harrison being involved in a motor bus accident in 1923 when a Barton Bros bus ran into a telegraph pole in Beeston. Despite being a “victim of the mishap” Mrs Harrison was “progressing satisfactorily” at the time of the report in the Beeston Gazette and Echo (6 October 1923). A company, Harrison and Hill Ltd, was formed in 1932, with Mr Harrison going into business with a certain Miss Gwendoline Hill in a firm of manufacturers and dealers of clothing and wearing apparel.
Between around 1933 and 1936, The Red House Estate was being developed on surrounding land off the newly created Brookland Drive. The builder Cecil C. Blythe advertises houses in local papers with tag lines including, “Have you visited The Red House Estate, Cator Lane? If not, why not?” the houses were “modern and labour saving” (Beeston Gazette and Echo, 4 Nov 1933). All these nuggets were found using the British Newspaper Archive.
Fothergill’s extension to The Red House. Photo: Lucy BrouwerFothergill’s extension protrudes from the square plan of the original house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Ian was keen to point out that The Red House exhibits some characteristics that bring to mind the Arts & Crafts movement – Fothergill’s attention to detail, fondness for decorative elements and good quality materials suggest at least a knowledge of William Morris and his Red House – now a National Trust property in Bexleyheath, on the outskirts of London. But “The Red House” is a common name for properties that are this colour – Fothergill’s fondness for the distinctive Mapperley Bricks might just as well be the origin of the name.
Characteristic Fothergill additions – leaded windows, decorative brickwork, nogging and a hint of polychrome. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The chimney towers above the rest of the house, note Fothergill’s use of English Garden Wall bond for the brickwork. Photo: Lucy Brouwer.
Inside the house, there are some quirks of design like the decorative coving in the Fothergill drawing room, and a door that has a frame at an angle to accommodate the staircase. Fothergill appears to have moved the stairs from what was the front of the house to the back (except this is now used as the front!). It was hard to photograph and it would be useful to have the plans – if anyone with knowledge of Chilwell history knows where they might be, then please let us know!
The hall, where the original exterior wall and door have been moved to create the extension. The arch shows where the exterior wall originally stood. The unusual plasterwork panelling in the hall (which also goes upstairs) seems to be part of the work done when Fothergill extended the house. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Tricky to see in a photo, but this door frame is angled so that it can fit behind the stairs…never seen one like it before! Photo: Lucy Brouwer
The chamfered corners in the living room are echoed in all the interiors that are part of Fothergill’s extension. Similar details exist in other houses he worked on. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Some details on the porch, which was originally the front door. A buttress, cut out patterns in the wood and brick nogging above, all features familiar from other Fothergill buildings in Nottingham. Photo: Lucy Brouwer
Huge thanks to Ian Paul for inviting me to look at his house!
If you live in a Fothergill building, or if you have a house whose history you’d like to explore, then Lucy might be able to help with research – please fill in the form on the contact page to send a message. Tours will be back in 2022!
Thanks to everyone who has joined a Watson Fothergill Walk so far this summer, it’s been great to get back out there and explore Nottingham’s Victorian Architecture with you all.
It’s always pleasing when people say things like “I’ve walked past this a thousand times but never noticed it before!” or tell their own stories about the buildings.
Here are dates for walks in September 2021, click through for details and tickets:
I’m also doing a short taster walk for Heritage Open Days in partnership with Debbie Bryan’s shop in the Lace Market. tickets for this introduction to the architecture of the Lace Market are free but must be booked via Debbie Bryan’s website.
Lace Market Guided Tour 11 September, 2pm This is a shorter walk looking at the architecture around St Mary’s Gate including Thomas Chambers Hine’s Adams and Birkin Warehouses.
One of the great things about doing The Watson Fothergill Walk is that people sometimes invite me to explore inside the buildings…
I was lucky enough to be contacted by Jonathan from Woodlands, who looks after the building at Queen’s Chambers, it was a rare opportunity to take a look inside some of the flats while they were between occupants.
I didn’t get to go inside Flat 1 as it is presently occupied, but there is a virtual tour here (this is the only one of the flats that has wood panelling still extant.) However, I did get to look inside several of the other flats, including Flat 2 which has just been let (photos still available here).
All the flats I looked at were spacious and surprisingly quiet. Each has been kept as close as possible to the original layout and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the original building remained.
Queen’s Chambers, which stands on the corner of Long Row and King Street where it opens out onto the Market Square, was commenced in 1896 and seems to have passed inspection in 1899. The date stone reads 1897, as the building was named to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 60th Jubilee – indeed there is a bust of Her Majesty just beneath the chimney on the King Street elevation.
Plans for the Queen Street elevation of Queen’s Chambers (courtesy Woodlands).
The building was commissioned as “four sale shops with offices and workrooms over” for Mr Edward Skipwith Esquire, of EW Skipwith, Wine and Spirit Merchants. I had, up to this point, assumed that Skipwith was still trading as a Wine and Spirit Merchant in the new building but further research leads me to make the assumption that it was built as a retirement investment, as suites of offices to be rented out.
Indeed, in 1899 Fothergill was advertising “Suites of Offices or Single Rooms to be Let”.
Nottingham Journal, 17 Feb 1899 (British Newspaper Archive).
Taking me around the building, Jonathan was keen to point out lots of details. From the coal cellar (now part of the White Rose charity shop) through the building, past the “Porter’s Lodge” (a concierge booth by the entrance), up the impressive central stairs to the flats and the tower at the top. (That involved a rather hair-raising climb up a pull-down ladder over the stairwell into the top room that just has windows for the view!). Here are some photos that I took inside:
I was particularly impressed by all the original windows and glass that remains in the building.
Huge thanks to Jonathan for showing me around and being so keen to share what he knows about the building.
You can learn more about the architecture of Watson Fothergill and the history of his buildings on the Watson Fothergill Walk, more dates coming soon!
Three Lions may belong on a shirt… but there are four lions at Nottingham Castle that I am particularly interested in…
The four stone lion sculptures found in the grounds of Nottingham Castle… Photos: Lucy Brouwer
As I mention on the Watson Fothergill Walk, these four stone lion sculptures originally adorned the tower of the Black Boy Hotel. On a visit to the newly reopened Nottingham Castle I found them in the grounds welcoming visitors. Each one has weathered to give it an individual character and their paws look almost as if they’re raising a toast!
Two of the lions at the top of step to Nottingham Castle. Photo: Lucy BrouwerYou can just see 2 of the lions on the corners of the tower, added to the hotel by Fothergill in 1897. Picture Nottingham.
Fothergill worked on the hotel over many years, coming back to rebuild and extend it on several occasions. On the tower, added in 1897, you can make out the lions, each a standard bearer with a shield – their poles are now long gone but you can see where they would have held them in their paws.
The Black Boy Hotel c.1939
The hotel was demolished in 1970 and replaced by Littlewoods (now Primark) on Long Row. The lions have been at the Castle ever since.
Read more about The Black Boy Hotel here, or join the Watson Fothergill Walk to learn all about the building, its architect and his work in Nottingham.
A look at the domestic architecture of Watson Fothergill and his chief assistant L.G. Summers in Mapperley Park, Sherwood Rise and Carrington (with tea and coffee available at Clawson Lodge and a chance to look around inside) 2 hours/ 3km.
A look at the domestic architecture of Watson Fothergill and his chief assistant L.G. Summers in Mapperley Park, Sherwood Rise and Carrington (with tea and coffee available at Clawson Lodge and a chance to look around inside) 2 hours/ 3km.
Watson Fothergill Walk – 27 June 2021, 10 am The original city centre walk, looking at the flamboyant Victorian architecture of Watson Fothergill, also known as Fothergill Watson! 2hrs/ 2km.
Tickets for all walks are £15 each and numbers are limited to 12 people per tour (for now!)
Lucy is also available during the week for private tours for small groups so please email if you have a group of friends or family who would enjoy discovering Nottingham from a new angle!
The Watson Fothergill Walk is back! I’ve set a date for a walk in the city centre on 30 May 2021 starting at 10 am. I’ve reduced that capacity to allow for social distancing so there will be just 12 tickets available!
This is the original Watson Fothergill Walk starting at Nottingham Tourism Centre. Learn about the buildings of one of Nottingham’s most prominent Victorian architects, his signature style and the influence of the Gothic on the city’s buildings. A walk of approximately 2km (1.25 miles)
The more I work on Fothergill, give talks and promote my guided walks, the more contact I receive from people who want to know if the building they have spotted is the work of Watson Fothergill, architect.
Recently, I’ve been sent several photos, either houses people have spotted while on urban walks or pictures they have seen posted on social media, each with the question: Is this a Fothergill?
But is it a Fothergill? Pics from l-r, Wilford Grove/ Wilford Crescent East by Chris Pyke-Hendry, Hardwick Road by Lucy Iliffe and Lenton Boulevard spotted on Facebook (originally from Picture Nottingham)
I always direct people to Darren Turner’s Fothergill: A Catalogue of The Works of Watson Fothergill, Architect, an extremely thorough piece of research that has been invaluable to me in putting together my tours. In the book, Darren has found evidence for every attribution he makes and the results are compelling. However, there remain a group of buildings he calls “The Awkward Squad”
Many of these dodgy attributions persist. This goes back to the over-enthusiastic obituarist in the Nottingham Journal who in 1928 laid claim to Fothergill’s distictive buildings being found in “almost every city and town between Nottingham and London.” (I’m not really sure that a bank in Loughborough, a cemetery chapel and a coffee house in Ongar and a solitary house in Sydenham really hold this to be true.)
Clip from The Nottingham Journal’s notice of Watson Fothergill’s death, 7 March 1928. Source: British Newspaper Archive.
There are also a lot of photographs that originate from Nottingham’s council archive, many now online at Picture Nottingham, that are labeled as being buildings by Watson Fothergill. A great many of them are genuine Fothergill’s and there are some wonderful photos available, but some of them are part of “The Awkward Squad” or have even proved to be designed by different architects entirely. Several of these photos from the 1960s are credited to Mr FC Tighe.
F.C. Tighe, City Librarian (standing), with composer Eric Coates (who himself also has a connection to Fothergill!) 1953, Nottingham Evening Post. (source: Picture Nottingham)
Francis Charles Tighe was the Nottingham City Librarian (from 1953 until his death, aged 48 in 1964). In the early 1960s, Mr Tighe entered into correspondence with Brigadier George Fothergill Ellenberger, Fothergill’s oldest grandson (WW1 veteran and son of Eleanor Watson Fothergill Ellenberger and Georg Hieronymous Ellenberger – see blogs passim). Mr Tighe was preparing a lecture on Fothergill and Ellenberger sent him several family records including Fothergill’s diary. The microfilm copy held by the University of Nottingham archives still has the numbered tabs that the Brigadier added to correspond to a list of buildings “with which he may have been concerned whether as architect or renovator”.
The Brigadier typed out a ‘generous’ list of his grandfather’s works – 39 buildings, all but one of which are demonstrably by Fothergill. The problem comes from another fifty-odd projects that were handwritten onto the list. Ellenberger was not claiming them all for Fothergill but many of them have become firmly associated with the architect.*
These include, among others, several house in The Park Estate (Edale, which proves to be by Thomas Chambers Hine; Brightlands – now Adam House which was actually built for Samuel Bourne by Arthur George Marshall; and several houses on Hope Drive and Peveril Drive).
After the success of his lecture on Fothergill, Mr Tighe became a passionate Fothergill-Spotter and began to see them almost everywhere. Many of the photographs on Picture Nottingham that include the generic Watson Fothergill biography seem to originate from this period (indeed many are credited to Mr Tighe or are from what looks like the same batch marked c. 1964). This combination of attributions, and the way the keyword search on the site works, would seem to be responsible for the proliferation of these images to various social media platforms.
Indeed, I have found buildings by Fothergill’s assistant, L.G. Summers in Duke Street and the corner of Cedar Road that are cited as Fothergill’s on Picture Nottingham and other buildings that bear more resemblance to Summers’ later work.
As for the ones I have been sent recently – I think that the Lenton Boulevard houses (pictured above) are likely by Brewill & Baily. (See the latest Pevsner Guide To The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, p. 503) The Nottingham-based partnership of Arthur William Brewill (d.1923) and Basil Edgar Baily (1869-1942) were working in Nottingham during a similar period to Watson Fothergill, and there are bound to be some similarities in the material they used and their overall architectural influences. Other houses on Lenton Boulevard were photographed for Mr Tighe and to me, these feel like they are among some of his more wild guesses.
115 Lenton Boulevard, attributed to Fothergill but I’m very doubtful about this one. Photo: Google Street View. BUT IS IT A FOTHERGILL?
Number 115 Lenton Boulevard retains its attribution to Fothergill even in the latest Pevsner Guide. If anyone has any more information on any of these buildings, the pedant in me would like to straighten out the records!
Former Leenside Police Station, Canal Street. Photo: Lucy Brouwer NOT A FOTHERGILL!
Another Fothergill attribution that persists (due to how often photos of it are posted online) is the former Leenside Police Station on Canal Street. Despite red bricks and a turret, this is not listed in Darren Turner’s Catalogue at all. It was actually built by the City Engineer’s Department in 1901-2.
The Trent Bridge Inn. Photo: Wikimedia NOT A FOTHERGILL
The Trent Bridge Inn, another building whose shape might suggest some connection to Fothergill is in fact another ringer, having been built by William Bright (1888-90) with additions by Thomas Jenkins (1919). (Some info on The TBI and other Nottingham buildings that have become Wetherspoons pubs via Nottingham Civic Society.)
Building at corner of Wilford Crescent East. Photo: Chris Pyke-Hendry. Some features might point to L.G Summers but does anyone have any more clues? IS IT A FOTHERGILL???
The building near Meadows Library (above) photos of which were sent to me recently remains a mystery. To me it has some 1890s characteristics that might point in the direction of L.G. Summers, but as we have seen, a lot of building took place in the city around this time and there’s no evidence to substantiate who the architect might have been (not so far anyway).
Hardwick Road, photo: Lucy Iliffe
The actual Fothergill among the photos at the top of this blog (also above) is at the corner of Hardwick Road and Hartington Road, in Sherwood. Apparently some renovation is currently taking place. Built in 1890 as a villa on what was then called Cavendish Hill, for Mr Thomas Gallimore – who worked for Smith & Co Bank at the Long Eaton branch (itself designed by Fothergill). Gallimore also seems to have been a friend of L.G. Summers (Summers was present at Gallimore’s funeral in 1935). So even when we say something is a Fothergill, it shouldn’t discount the work of his chief assistant! You can see from the patterning of the bricks, the shape of the features like the windows and the chimney that this house resembles other known Fothergill’s more closely than any of Mr Tighe’s hopefuls that I’ve mentioned here.
I think what this really goes to show is that Nottingham is full of interesting buildings that are worth noticing and I hope it encourages you to go Fothergill-Spotting on urban walks! I’m still digging into the stories of the buildings that people have told me about and I’m always interested to hear from you if you live in a Watson Fothergill house or an interesting Victorian-era property that might be connected to the other architects of the period.
You can contact me HERE and sign up to the mailing list for the latest news on the return of the Watson Fothergill Walk in summer 2021.
*For more on this story, see the chapter “The Awkward Squad” in Fothergill: A Catalogue of the Works of Watson Fothergill, Architect by Darren Turner. Available from Five Leaves Books.
Explore the highlights of the Watson Fothergill Walk with an illustrated talk on Zoom. Look at the beautiful details of some of Nottingham’s most flamboyant buildings and learn more about the architect who designed them. The next date for the Zoom “Virtual” walk is Thursday 4 February 2021 at 7 pm.
