Heritage News 19 - South Derbyshire District Council

HISTORIC BUILDINGS - NEW LISTINGS
Four new buildings have been added to the register
of listed buildings within South Derbyshire in the
last nine months. A request for a building to be listed
can be made by any member of the public, or by a
body such as the District Council, which in practice
currently submits most of the requests that are made
from South Derbyshire.
The responsibility for listing buildings lies with the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport in London,
which takes the advice of English Heritage officers
as to whether a building should be listed or not.
The newly-listed buildings comprise:
Sealwood Cottage, Sealwood Lane, Linton
(listed 25 th August, 2004).
This is an intriguing, folly-like, “gothick” cottage of the
late 18 th century which stood on the edge of Seal Wood,
commanding a wide view towards Overseal. The
woodland around the cottage has long since been felled.
The cottage, built by the Gresleys of Netherseal
apparently for their own use, is of a highly unusual cavity
wall construction, with re-used oak timber framing to the
outer leaf of the walls, and solid brickwork to the inner
leaf.
The Woodville War Memorial, of Cornish granite with a
bronze plaque, dates from 1925-26. Many war
memorials are not listed buildings, but one of the reasons
for listing this one was its unusual inscription: “Erected
to the memory of the late Mr. W. Cousens who for 30
years was the much esteemed head master of the
Wesleyan School of the village, and his scholars who
paid the supreme sacrifice in the Great War 1914-1918”.
Below is the list of 130 men, including 77 scholars, who
were killed in action. On the reverse are the names of
those who fell in the Second World War 1939-1945.
Escolme Pottery, Woodville
(listed 21 st February, 2005).
Originally, the house had just a single room downstairs
and a single room upstairs, reached by a pretty, winding
staircase. The upstairs room was evidently a “prospect
room”, featuring a fine fireplace, large window, pyramidal
ceiling ... and an original bedframe which slides out of
the dado from a void in the roof space! A modest
extension was made to the house in the Victorian period.
Woodville War Memorial
(listed 30 th March, 2005).
•The Escolme Pottery, Woodville
By a coincidence, this building is only a few yards away
from the one previously mentioned. The new listing
comprises the one remaining bottle kiln of the pottery,
dated “1833” in blue headers on the top courses,
together with the workshops to the south west of the
kiln. This was the only bottle kiln within the area of the
former Swadlincote potteries that was not already listed.
There are now nine listed examples in the area
altogether. The others comprise a group of four kilns at
the T. G. Green pottery, plus single examples at the
former “top bank” of T. G. Green’s, Sharpe’s Pottery
(Swadlincote), Rawdon Pottery (behind the Clock
Garage at Woodville) and at Bretby Brick and Stoneware
Co.
Phone Box, Main Street, Milton
(listed 10 th January, 2005).
Not all listed buildings are built of bricks, stone or mortar.
Cast iron mileposts and, yes, cast iron phoneboxes, are
equally eligible. In practice, telephone boxes are more
likely to be deemed “listable” where they form part of
the streetscene in a “good heritage location” such as a
conservation area, as the Milton one does. This red
telephone box, of the friendly and familiar type that was
once ubiquitous, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott
and made by various manufacturers.
•The Woodville War Memorial.
Heritage News - 6