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ANCLIFF
SQUARE
1770's
- Weavers Cottages
Built as a group of weavers' cottages in the late 1770's
the building known at the turn of the millenium as Ancliff
Square was in turn... the Bradford Union Work House from
1836 to 1914... a convalescent home for wounded soldiers
during the 1914-18 war...a residential Hotel, known as 'The
Old Court' between 1922 and 1948...a coversion to 14 self
contained flats from 1952 to 1987 when it was developed
into 12 seperate houses. Changing it's title to Ancliff
Square. Few records remain of its origins as a Weavers Residence:
it was reputed to have been built around 1795 by clothier,
William Moggeridge, owner of the dunkirk Woolen Mill at
Fresford, to house 14 families of handloom weavers. With
the indroduction of machinery into the Weaving Industry,
handlooms became redundant and in 1836, the building was
brought and converted into the Bradford Union Work House.
A chapel extention was added which also contained the dininng
halls and kitchens.
1851
- Work Housel
The 1851 census recorded that on 30 March there
were 249 occupants of the Bradford Work House - 13 officers
and 236 paupers': Twelve of the later were identified as
weavers or clothworkers including one Ezekiel Troyford,
aged 81, proberly one of the many of the buildings previous
inhabitants unable to adjust to the 'Machine Age'. Another
clothmaker, Theresa Love, aged 19, may have been responsible
for the family discerible miscription LOVE inside the beehive-shaped
stone building used as a drying house for the woolen cloth.
In Workhouse days, it was used as a lock-up and moituary.
The building ceased to bea workhouse in 1914 and was used
briefly as a convalesent home for wounded soldiers. One
of the former patients recaled that patriotic inn Keapers
in Bradford would often provide the soldiers with free beer
and, returning by barge along the canal they were greeted
by sympathetic nurses with streatchers to carry the legless
back to their wards.
1922
- The Old Court Hotel
Its conversion in 1922, when it became the 'Old Court Hotel',
saw the chapel converted into a ballroom and restaurant
and later, during the second World War, valuable artifacts
from the British Museum were stored for saftey in its basement
The Old Court Hotel closed in 1948 and the building remained
empty until 1952.
1971
It was then brought by the Dell family who started converting
it into 14 flats. Following 2 more brief changes of ownership,
the property was acquired by Anthony & Prudence Dunstoon
in 1971. They moved in in 1972 with their 7 children and
spent the next 18 years, using mainly re-claimed materials,
to improve the interior of the building.
1987
In 1987 they decided to return the flats into individal
homes based on the original weavers cottages. They commissioned
Bath architects Tim Organ & Hans Klaeutschi to carry out
the project which involved gutting the interior without
altering the character of its grade 2 listed facade. Builders
PRC took nearly 2 years to complete the development, depositing
huge quantities of soil on the 2 acre plot ( originally
the work house gardens and site of the school for the children
of its inmates).
1993
- Underground House
It was on this piece of land that Anthony Dunsoon had the
idea of using the redundant stone resevoir (which used to
supply the workhouse with water) as a possible site for
an underground house. He asked Hans Klaentschi, responsible
for the Ancliff Square conversion to draw up plans for the
project. An application to build it was submitted to the
West Wiltshire district Council in november 1993. though
it received widespread local support, final planning approval
was not given (following a public enquiry) untill feburary
1995.
1995
Construction of the underground house by local builders:
Shelland & Winter, began in April 1995 and was completed
in august 1997. The Dunsoon family moved in the begining
of September and began the process of landscaping the huge
mound of soil left over from the excavation for the underground
dwelling, now named Ancliff Down. Many of the materials
used in the re-making of the landscape were stones and pavings
from the former workhouse shool and from the old resevoir
- spcifically the stone steps up the banks ( slabs from
the floor of the resevoir). Flagstones which had originally
paved workhouse floors and the staudary stones, dug up when
the site was accavatted.
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INTRODUCTION
THE
RESIDENTS
THE
AQUEDUCT
THE
MILLS
THE
CROSS GUNS
ANCLIFF
SQUARE
ANCLIFF
DOWN
THE
KENNET AND AVON CANAL
THE
BOAT PEOPLE
THE
RAILWAY
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