The Judges' Lodgings, formerly a

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

and now a museum, is located between Church Street and Castle Hill, Lancaster,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The building is the oldest existing town house in Lancaster, and was also the first house in Lancaster to have shutters. It was used by judges when they attended the sessions of the

Assize Court The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

. Use of the house by visiting judges ended in 1975, and the building was converted into a museum; featuring a museum of childhood, and the Gillow furniture collection. The future of the museum was put in doubt, following an announcement from Lancashire County Council that it would be closed permanently. Closure was initially proposed to take place on 31 March 2016, but it was deferred. In April 2018 it was announced the museum would open to the general public between Easter and the end of October 2019.

History

Previous buildings

There is evidence that older buildings have stood on the site. The remains of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

were discovered in the garden. It is likely that the first house on the site was built in wood, and later replaced in stone. It is possible the house built in 1314 for Robert de Holland was on this site. The oldest fabric in the present house dates from the 1550s: In the entrance hall is a massive stone fireplace of that date.

Current building

The building was constructed around 1625, re-using structural timbers and possibly on an earlier foundation. By 1639 the house was owned by Thomas Covell, Mayor of Lancaster, and Keeper of

Lancaster Castle Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of ...

. That building has been called the "Old Hall" of Lancaster. p.436 For many years the house was used as lodgings by visiting judges attending the

Assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

court at Lancaster Castle. There is evidence that the house was used for this purpose as early as 1635. Lancaster was severely damaged by

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

forces in 1643 during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. Around 1662 the property was bought by Thomas Cole, Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire. The building was extended and altered in 1675, and the new building was called "New Hall". The house was sold in 1826 to the county

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

s. Following this an extension was added to the side of the building, and other alterations were made. Use of the house by visiting judges ended in 1975, and the building was converted into a museum. This includes a Museum of Childhood, and a collection of furniture made by the Lancaster firm of Gillows (later

Waring & Gillow Waring & Gillow (also written as Waring and Gillow) was a noted firm of English furniture manufacturers and antique dealers formed in 1897 by the merger of Gillows of Lancaster and London and Waring of Liverpool. Background Gillow & Co. The firm ...

Closure in 2016

Due to cuts to local council budgets by the Cameron government, in November 2015 Lancashire County Council proposed withdrawing all funding for five museums across Lancashire: the Judges' Lodgings,

Fleetwood Museum Fleetwood Museum is a local history and maritime museum in the English seaside town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. The museum was originally the town's Customs House and, completed in 1836, was one of the first buildings constructed in Fleetwood. Lik ...

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum Helmshore Mills are two mills built on the River Ogden in Helmshore, Lancashire. Higher Mill was built in 1796 for William Turner, and Whitaker's Mill was built in the 1820s by the Turner family. In their early life they alternated between work ...

Museum of Lancashire The Museum of Lancashire is an historic collection in Preston in Lancashire, England. The museum, which is based in the old Sessions House, is a Grade II listed building. History Construction of the courthouse, which was commissioned to accomm ...

and

Queen Street Mill Queen Street Mill is a former weaving mill in Harle Syke, a suburb to the north-east of Burnley, Lancashire, that is a It was built in 1894 for the Queen Street Manufacturing Company. It closed on 12 March 1982 and was mothballed, but was su ...

. The leader of the council spoke of "the financial challenges facing the county council as we deal with relentless cuts to central government funding combined with rising demand for our services". Despite letters of protest and an on-line petition the council confirmed their decision at a meeting in February 2016 and the Judges' Lodgings was told it would close its doors for the last time on 31 March. A group of concerned citizens formed a "Friends of the Judges' Lodgings" in the hopes of finding a way to allow the museum to continue. In March 2016 the closure of all five museums was deferred until September 2016.Jordison, Sam. The museum closed on 30 September 2016, along with the other four Lancashire museums mentioned above, except for pre-booked school groups. Lancashire County Council's website states that "Negotiations are underway with a potential new operator and it is hoped they will be finalised in Autumn 2017." In April 2018 Lancashire County Council announced it would be reopening the museum, alongside Queen Street Mill and Helmshore Textile Mills, to the general public for three days a week over the summers of 2018 and 2019 while talks continued about their futures.

2019 and 2020

In March 2019 Lancaster Judges' Lodgings reopened staffed by a mixture of paid staff and volunteers. The first season after the reopening saw many visitors both coming from out of town and local residents keen to see the museum open once again. There was a busy programme of events put on by the museum and the Friends which ensured that Judges' Lodgings had a very successful reopening season. However, many of the events planned for 2020 were put on hold due to the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and the opening was delayed until the end of August 2020. It was announced that the Judges' Lodgings would re-open on 28 August 2020, for pre-booked visits only.

Architecture

The building is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary ...

with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

dressings and

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roofs. It has a U-shaped plan. The entrance front faces west, is symmetrical, has three storeys and a basement, and is in seven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

. The architectural style is

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

. The doorcase has Tuscan columns supporting blocks carved with lions' heads, a

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

containing flowers, and an open segmental

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

containing a painting of the

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

of Lancashire.

Collections

Gillows Furniture collection

Judges' Lodgings tour and editathon 2014 24

The building houses an extensive collection of Gillows furniture, which is partly displayed in the context of a museum of the firm and partly in rooms furnished in period style.

Robert Gillow Robert Gillow (1704–1772) was an English furniture manufacturer, who founded Gillow & Co. Early life Robert Gillow was born on 2 August 1704 in Singleton, Lancashire to a prominent English recusant Roman Catholic family. He served an apprentic ...

(1704-1772) started making furniture around 1727, predating

Thomas Chippendale Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779) was a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled ''The Gentleman and Ca ...

by twenty years. He made furniture for the upper middle classes and landed gentry. Robert was succeeded by his sons: Richard managed the Lancaster production, and Robert set up a London operation. As a provincial he was unique in having a London showroom. It was a family business until 1813, when the Gillow family sold the firm to three partners, Redmayne, Whiteside, and Ferguson, who retained the name Gillow & Co. Gillows furniture is referred to by

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

and the first Lord Lytton, and in one of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

's comic operas. Much of the furniture in the Judges' Lodging was commissioned by specific clients. The firm's Estimate Sketch Books are preserved in Westminster City Archives. They constructed furniture to their own design and nurtured their own designers but equally they would construct furniture for designers without production capacity. They did work for Chippendale, Sheraton and

Hepplewhite George Hepplewhite (1727? – 21 June 1786) was a cabinetmaker. He is regarded as having been one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Chippendale. There are no pieces of furnit ...

. In the 1760s Gillows began producing

billiard table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

s. They have even been credited with inventing the billiard table, although billiards had been played for a long time before the 1760s. They are also credited with patenting the "telescopic" (extendable) dining table and building the first

Davenport desk A Davenport desk, (sometimes originally known as a Devonport desk) is a small desk with an inclined lifting desktop attached with hinges to the back of the body. Lifting the desktop accesses a large compartment with storage space for paper and o ...

. By 1900, the firm was producing a complete interior decoration service but this strained the company's finances - and it was taken over by Waring of Liverpool in 1903.

continued but never achieved the same reputation for quality. They folded in 1962, and the Lancaster workshops closed. In war time, they built wings and

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s for the

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...

DH9 and parts of the

Mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

Bruce James Talbert

During the 1860s and 70s, Gillows employed the

Gothic Revivalist Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

designer Bruce James Talbert (1838–81). The firm produced many items of furniture to Talbert's designs, including two

sideboard A sideboard, also called a buffet, is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers ...

s from around 1872, on display at the Judges' Lodgings. In 1867, Talbert wrote ''Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work and Decoration for Domestic Purposes'', this work proved to be influential on the commercial production of furniture. Talbert recommended framed construction, decorative inlay and

low-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

carving. Another recommendation was the use of large, flat metal hinges.(Payne, p136) Talbert's work was displayed at numerous international exhibitions, including the International Exhibition of 1873, and his designs in the

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

and Jacobean styles were produced by many cabinet making firms. His designs tended to be highly detailed, including bold geometric inlaid patterns, intricately carved squares of boxwood and rows of small turned spindles. Some pieces included a carved verse with a moral message. In the sideboards at the Judges' Lodgings, one of which is known as the ''

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Cabinet'', produced by Gillows to Talbert's designs, his characteristic carved squares, geometric designs and rows of spindles are clearly evident. The Dundee Cabinet is made of stained baywood with inlaid panels of

thuya Thuya (sometimes transliterated as Touiyou, Thuiu, Tuya, Tjuyu or Thuyu) was an Egyptian noblewoman and the mother of queen Tiye, and the wife of Yuya. She is the grandmother of Akhenaten, and great grandmother of Tutankhamun. Biography Thu ...

and

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

. The item is stamped ''Gillows of Lancaster''. An identical piece to this cabinet is illustrated in an entry dated 8 March 1872 in ''Gillows' Estimate Sketch Book''. The drawing is annotated ''Inlaid bird panel as before'', therefore it appears that a similar cabinet had been made previously. An elaborated version of the cabinet appeared in Talbert's ''Examples of Ancient and Modern Furniture'', published in 1876.Display panel, the Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster The sideboard displayed in the butler's pantry is made of

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

with panels of

Paintings

English Paintings

On display in the museum are some notable works by George Romney. Romney, who was born in the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

district of what was then Lancashire, relocated to London in the 1760s but remained in contact with Lancashire, painting the local gentry and buying picture frames from Gillows. A portrait of

Abraham Rawlinson Abraham Rawlinson (1738–24 May, 1803) was an English politician and merchant. He came from a prominent Quaker family which traded out of the port of Lancaster. Rawlinson served as one of two Members of Parliament for Lancaster from 1780 to ...

, MP for Lancaster in the 1780s, hangs in the entrance hall: it was acquired in 2006. There are also portraits by

Joseph Wright of Derby Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Wr ...

and Sir

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

French paintings

Judges' Lodgings 2014 GLAM La Creuse a Genetin 2801 gimped

There is a collection of six French paintings, the Lionel Hewlett bequest. This includes two landscapes by the

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Armand Guillaumin Armand Guillaumin (; February 16, 1841 – June 26, 1927) was a French impressionist painter and lithographer. Biography Early years Born Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in Paris, he worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending eveni ...

, one of the river Creuse and another of the

Île de Ré Île de Ré (; variously spelled Rhé or Rhéa; Poitevin: ''ile de Rét''; en, Isle of Ré, ) is an island off the Atlantic coast of France near La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait. Its highe ...

, showing the influence of the artist's friend Van Gogh.

Museum of childhood

Judges' Lodgings tour and editathon 2014 34

The displays include a nursery with spectacular 3 seater

rocking horse __NOTOC__ A rocking horse is a child's toy, usually shaped like a horse and mounted on rockers similar to a rocking chair. There are two sorts, the one where the horse part sits rigidly attached to a pair of curved rockers that are in contact wit ...

and a reconstructed classroom. The center of the collection is the Brian Elder collection of dolls purchased for the museum in 1976. It includes examples of peg dolls, pressed felt dolls by Lenci, poured wax dolls, bisque porcelain dolls and

composition doll A composition doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of composition, a composite material composed of sawdust, glue, and other materials such as cornstarch, resin and wood flour. The first composition dolls were made in the 19th century. Com ...

s by

Armand Marseille Armand Marseille was a company in Köppelsdorf, Thuringia, Germany, that manufactured porcelain headed ( bisque) dolls from 1885 onwards. Location Köppelsdorf is a part of Sonneberg, in the Landkreis Sonneberg, in Thuringia due north of Nurembe ...

Simon & Halbig Simon & Halbig was a doll manufacturer known for bisque doll heads with subtle colouring. They were based in Thuringia, the centre of the German doll industry. They supplied doll heads to many other well known doll makers. These are now collecta ...

and S.F.B.J.Interpretive Board, at the Judges' Lodgings museum In the display cabinets are

doll's house A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America ...

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

Meccano Meccano is a brand of scale model, model construction system created in 1898 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England. The system consists of reusable metal strips, plates, Structural steel#Common structural shapes, angle girders, wheels, axles and ...

and some Hornby railway trains.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * Display panel. The Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster.

External links

*
Friends of Judges' Lodgings website
* {{Authority control Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire Grade I listed houses Buildings and structures in Lancaster, Lancashire Historic house museums in Lancashire Georgian architecture in England Toy museums in England Museums in Lancaster, Lancashire