Description

TENDRING

1251/0/10006 HEATH ROAD
11-NOV-02 Tendring Heath
Heath Hospital

II
Former workhouse for Tendring Union, later Heath Hospital, and empty at time of inspection [August 2002]. Design approved by 1836, built 1838 at cost of £12,000, with later C19 and C20 alterations. George Gilbert Scott [1811-78] and William Bonython Moffatt [1812-1887]. Brown brick with yellow brick and stone dressings. Slate roofs.
PLAN: 2 parallel ranges facing west, ENTRANCE BLOCK to front with MAIN BLOCK behind, both with central emphasis [that to Entrance Block a gateway and that to Main Block a central surveillance hub] and linear wings projecting to north and south.
EXTERIOR: ENTRANCE RANGE with brick plinth and a central taller gateway with wide arch [now blocked] under stone voussoirs and keystone, all under prominent pediment. Lower wings to each side, 2-window bay, then advanced 2-window bay, then 2-window bay to end under hipped roof. Windows [covered] with gauged yellow brick lintels and keystone, separated by brick pilasters. To north end, return range enclosing yard with later inserted openings, that to south end is a C20 replacement. MAIN RANGE with central polygonal 4-story hub with one-bay projections from the 4 corners for maximum surveillance of the 4 segregated yards. Parapet roof, possibly original pediments at each corner removed. End pavilions to each range with hipped roof. Flat brick eaves band. Windows to hub and end pavilions mostly paned sashes. Some small plain windows with central hinges survive to flanking wings, most are later casements.
INTERIOR: Plan survives relatively intact to upper floors, re-worked at ground floor for earlier conversion to hospital. Upper levels of the Main Range have wood baluster stair with turned newels serving central hub and metal stair railing in the flanking wings. Windows set within deep reveals with curved corners. Paned overlights or ventilation grilles above internal doors in wings. Later additions to rear of both blocks not of interest.

HISTORY: Tendring Union Workhouse was built in 1838 to the designs of the highly significant Victorian architects George Gilbert Scott [1811-78] and William Bonython Moffatt [1812-1887]. It was one of the workhouses constructed in the 1830s in response to the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This instituted a national system of workhouses that could segregate different classes of inmates and enforce a routine of great discipline and, in the minds of the Poor Law Commission also serve as a deterrent for pauperism. The Act and its values were reflected in the buildings, most of which were quite plainly detailed, often executed in an austere Georgian classicism that was inexpensive but refined and authoritative. Many were based on one of several model workhouse plans prepared by the architect Samuel Kempthorne [1809-73] for the Poor Law Commission and that through planning strictly regulated the lives of the inmates. Kempthorne had three basic plans. One included ranges radiating from a central hub set within a square or hexagon, another was a cruciform plan without a central hub, and all were constructed in a bare and economical fashion. Scott worked with Kempthorne for a period, and the plans that he developed were clearly based on those that Kempthorne devised. However, Scott and Moffatt, who formed a partnership in 1836, developed a distinctive workhouse plan arrangement of their own. This generally comprised three distinct buildings: an entrance range, a main building, and an infirmary flanked by workshops. Typically, the entrance range included a central tall arch under a pediment, a T-shaped main block housing the master and matron in the central hub with male and female accommodation to separate sides, and often a semi-detached infirmary to the rear. The hub design at Tendring was also used at Burton-upon-Trent, Witham (q.v.), Williton (q.v. II*), Bideford, Gloucester, Liskeard, Tavistock (q.v.) and Tiverton (q.v.) in Devon and Bedminster. Scott and Moffatt completed about 40 workhouses around the country, about 14 of which have been demolished and about 20 of which are listed, many of these are slightly later when the pair departed from austere Classicism to ornamented Tudor and Elizabethan styles. Tendring Workhouse originally comprised an entrance block with return wings at the end to the main block, this survives except for the return wing to the south which is a C20 replacement. The site was developed further to the east later in the C19, including the kitchen wing projecting to the east of the central hub and the infirmary behind, now mostly incorporated into C20 buildings.

Only the original core buildings are listed; the later-C19 and C20 buildings on the site are not of special interest.

The former Tendring Workhouse was built in 1838 to the designs of George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt and retains much of its original plan, fittings, and architectural distinctiveness with a clearly readable original core.

SOURCES:
Morrison, Kathryn. The Workhouse: A Study of Poor Law Building in England. English Heritage and Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. 1999.
Tendring Union Workhouse report NBR No. 100676
Morrison, Kathryn. The New-Poor-Law Workhouses of George Gilbert Scoot and William Bonython Moffatt. In Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. Volume 40, 1997. Pp. 184-203.

Reasons for Listing

The former Tendring Workhouse, now in private ownership, was built in 1838 to the designs of George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffat. It compares with other listed buildings of its type, the entrance and main blocks were completed in 1838 and it retains much of its original plan, fittings, and architectural distinctiveness with a clearly readable original core. Recommendation is informed by recent research.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26675229

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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