These two semi-detached houses sit
beside Rochdale Road in Middleton. They are of brick
construction but on the front the top half is
rendered. Looking at the houses from Rochdale Road,
Redcroft is to the left and Fencegate is to the
right. Unlike typical semis, Wood's design is
asymmetrical. Redcroft (on the left in the photograph
above) has a wide gable across its front, whilst
Fencegate has a bay that rises above the roof line and
takes the eye up to a dormer window in the attic. The
asymmetry is accommodated by the fact that Fencegate's
entrance is on Rochdale Road and Redcroft's is on
Cleworth Road.
Redcroft has a rustic looking
porch which is somewhat reminiscent of the shelter
he designed for the market place in Middleton.
Redcroft was Wood's home until
about 1916. Wood lavished his full attention on the
decoration of the living room in his house creating a
painted frieze and designing a series of gesso panels,
each containing the figure of a muse, which he
included in the design of the surround of his living
room fireplace. Both houses had usable attic spaces
and Wood made his into a studio which was connected to
the hall by means of a speaking tube.
During the 1980s Fencegate became
vacant. In the years that followed the Middleton
newspaper wrote a number of articles describing it as
"Bleak House' and the "House of Horrors" The newspaper
claimed that building had become the haunt of vandals,
glue sniffers and the homeless. In fact, during the
1990s, while the front of the house remained
boarded-up, an extensive rebuilding of the structure
was going on, from the ground up. The house was being
totally re-built with a back wing, rear wall, gable
and frontage constructed to modern standards.
****************************** Other images of the houses. Fencegate (right) and Redcroft (left) 2001 - Image generously donated by Bob Pedley Image generously donated by "Pilkington's Lancastrian Pottery Society" Images generously donated by "Pilkington's Lancastrian Pottery Society" The beautiful image
below is shown here with the permission of Andy
Marshall of fotofacade.com
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