The Thoroton Society's meeting on Saturday 9 March 2002 is designated The Maurice Barley Lecture. This year the lecture will be given by Dr. Trevor Foulds and has the intriguing title 'This great house so lately begun and all of free stone': William Cavendish's Italianate palazzo called Nottingham Castle.
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, demolished the buildings in the Upper Bailey of the medieval castle at Nottingham and between 1674-9 built an Italianate palazzo, which was always known as Nottingham Castle. In spite of neglect in the eighteenth century, the disastrous fire of 1831, which gutted the interior, and T C Hine's conversion of the masonry shell into the present museum, what is seen today is essentially the seventeenth century palace, as erected by the 1st Duke of Newcastle.
What did the conversion entail? Hine's work has usually had a bad press. At the Council meeting held on 30th September 1875 the Castle Museum Committee reported that arrangements had been made with the trustees of the Duke of Newcastle for the lease of Nottingham Castle, and 25,000 square yards or more of the surrounding land, for 500 years at £40 for the first and second years, and subsequently at £200 a year. It was to be used for "Purposes connected with the advancement of Literature, Science, and Art, the education, recreation, and general good of the inhabitants of Nottingham and neighbourhood." The lease was signed on 11 October 1875. The Council was committed to spending £15,000 on the restoration and adaptation of the Castle for these purposes. The Castle Museum Committee was empowered to obtain plans and designs for the restoration.
Thomas Chambers Hine and Son was the only architectural practice invited to submit plans for the conversion of the "blackened ruin" into the "Midland Counties Museum and Gallery of Art." The Castle Museum Committee explained their reason at the Council meeting held on 17 January 1876 "Your Committee considered it expedient in the first place to ask Messrs. Hine and Son for designs, inasmuch as they had taken a very great interest in the development of the Castle Scheme, and are now acting as Surveyors to the Duke of Newcastle's Trustees, and would have, under the provisions of the Castle lease, to pass all plans, by whomsoever designed, relative to any works executed at the Castle. Your Committee made a distinct engagement with Messrs. Hine and Son, that in the event of the Council not approving their designs a small remuneration only should be paid to them for their trouble." In fact the Council approved the plans and authorized the Committee to obtain tenders.
The architects estimated the cost at £21,000, irrespective of the laying out of the grounds and forming the approaches. The first contract tendered for by Messrs. Maw and Ingle for £15,935 was accepted and work started immediately.
Hine's report on the state of the Castle and the work envisaged, as sent to the Castle Museum Committee, was as follows.
OFFICES,
4 VICTORIA STREET,
NOTTINGHAM, Dec. 30, 1875.
NOTTINGHAM
CASTLE.
To The Chairman
of the Castle Museum Committee.
Dear Sir,
In compliance
with the instructions of your Committee, I have made a design for the adaptation
of the main or E shaped building to the purposes of a Public Museum and Gallery
of Art, and which I have now the pleasure of submitting for your approval.
I have made a careful inspection of the shell or main walls of the edifice, and I am glad to state that, structurally speaking, they have suffered comparatively little from the effects of the fire of 1831, and in the case of the outer walls, simply regarding them as walls, the only portions which it will be necessary to rebuild will be the parapets, and those parts which come between the heads and cills (sills) of the window openings. The rent, which is so conspicuous in one of the partition walls I believe to be simply due to the contraction of the clay in which the masonry is bedded for the most part. The moulded and sculptured work is a matter of ornamental detail, and though necessary to be done in the fulfilment of the conditions of the lease, I only propose (if the Committee think it desirable) in the first instance to restore so much of it as will put the building into a decent and fitting condition, so that there may be no avoidable delay in opening it as a Public Museum.
It will be seen by the drawings1 that, with the exception of the omission of the two flights of steps on the east2 and west fronts, and the addition of some filling-in work to the small upper windows no longer wanted, the exterior of the edifice will be as near as possible what it was at its completion in 1680, and that the new roof, though somewhat conspicuous in the geometrical drawing here furnished, will only be visible at a distance, and then only from localities which are on a level with the upper terrace.
The interior, with the exception of one corner of the building which is set apart as a curator's residence, I propose to divide into two storeys, the lower one being 18 feet high, and lighted by the two lower tiers of windows, and the upper one 23 feet high, lighted from the roof, the floor between the two being of fireproof construction.
The colonnaded portico and retiring rooms behind in the western or carriage approach to the building will, I consider, be a fitting, if not necessary, adjunct to the building, although the execution of these works may be postponed for a time.
The estimate with which I have furnished you will, I consider, cover the cost of completing the whole of the works above referred to, and shewn on the accompanying plans1, and will include a perfect restoration of the exterior, the lighting, warming, and general adaptation of the building to the required purpose, according to the most modern and approved principles, but in case it may be found convenient to confine the outlay, in the first instance, to such works as I have described as being only immediately necessary, I would recommend that they should be specified under the heads before mentioned, and the tenders framed so that the Corporation may have the option of adopting either of them.
I am,
yours faithfully,
THOS. C. Hine,
For T. C. HINE AND SON.
T. C. Hine & Son's plans for the adaptation of the blackened, ruined castle into a museum and gallery of art were submitted to and approved by the Town Council on 17 January 1876. The architects' estimated cost, excluding the laying out of the grounds and forming the approaches, was £21,000. This figure included some provision for contingencies. The tender of £15,935 for the first contract, submitted by Messrs. Maw and Ingle, was accepted, and the work started without delay.
Once the debris which covered the old walls, had been removed, it was found that the provisions made in the architects' estimate under the head of "contingencies" were fully needed. The fire damage of 1831 together with 45 years of alternate rain and frost had produced inevitable results. Although the masonry was quite substantial, where the fire had penetrated, the quality of the stone was lost. Thus a winter's frost was all that was needed to dislodge it.
Vegetation had also helped to change the aspects of the place. The clay in which the masonry of the old foundations was embedded encouraged the luxuriant growth of plants, and the seeds dropped by birds within and without the building grew up either into stunted shrubs, forcing their way through fissures in the walls, or into wide-spreading trees overshadowing the terraces and blocking up what was once the carriage drive to the main approach.
In addition to the damage caused by fire, rain, and frost, the most serious fracture of all remained a mystery until it was traced to the earthquake of 1816. On Sunday 17 March 1816, according to the Nottingham Date-book, "Nottingham, in common with a great part of the North Midland district experienced a smart shock of earthquake." As the tremor was felt at 12.30pm the morning services had not finished; at St. Mary's "the pillars supporting the tower shook very visibly." Around the town many households reported displaced utensils.
The work of restoration was really confined to the exterior of the castle. The interior had to undergo a complete transformation. Except in the Curator's house, the old floor levels had to be abandoned; the flat roof, where visitors had often assembled in the past, was replaced by an ordinary span roof of slates and glass.
The adaptation of a three-storey mansion to the requirements of a two-storey museum, under conditions which demanded as strict adherence as possible to the original design of the exterior, presented many difficulties. Some undesirable deviations from the original design were quite unavoidable.
In the lower storey, however, the only problem was how to secure sufficient light without infringing these conditions. This was achieved by placing the floor above at such a height as would make a portion of the middle tier of windows available for this purpose. In the upper storey, which was required exclusively for a picture gallery, the existing fenestration was found to be utterly inadequate and there was no alternative but to convert the uppermost tier of windows into niches for busts, etc., raise the roof, and light the rooms wholly from this source. This was accomplished by means of a continuous skylight, with a glazed ceiling underneath. The effect produced, both as regards the amount of light and the means of securing an equable temperature, was entirely satisfactory.
The aggregate length of the internal walls, including those of the two stately staircases, which add to the picture space, is upwards of 2,000 feet. The generous response by the owners of private collections and the authorities of the Kensington Museum to the invitation of the Corporation for the loan of pictures and other works of art, resulted in the enclosure of the southern arcade to form an additional room.
On 4 June 1877 the Castle Museum Committee recommended and the Council agreed "improving the general exterior of the castle by erecting a balustrade, or pierced parapet, which will conceal the roof to a much greater extent than at present, and will form a platform walk, about four feet wide, along the whole circuit of the building." The cost was put at £1,200. This fenced walk was about one-sixth of a mile long and provided, it was claimed, the grandest view in Nottingham.
The principal gallery and most important room is the one on the eastern front of the building, which was formed by converting four rooms into one. This work allowed a richly carved stone arcade to replace the wall at the southern end. The sculptured pilasters of this arcade were decorated with medallions, by Mr. Shepherd, of Bristol. They contain 24 of the most eminent masters in the arts of painting, sculpture, music, and architecture. The watercolour, or South Gallery, is on the site of the picture gallery of the old ducal palace.
The Borough Engineer was requested to provide help for the erection of the lofty flagstaff, some 200 feet above the level of the River Leen, which runs at the foot of the Castle rock. (The river was not diverted into the canal until 1882-3). The difficulties of executing and rearing this pile of metal work within a week or two of the opening were cleverly surmounted. This included, perhaps greater one, finding a man able and small enough to creep through the interior and force red hot rivets through the holes while the hammering process went on outside!
Conscious of the Castle's earlier gutting by fire, the architect provided fire-proof floors, leather hose pipes, hydrants, and an abundant water supply to help protect the building from future fires, and thousands of feet of copper tape and numerous gold-tipped lightning rods covered electric storms. As Hine himself expressed it "Everything has been done that forethought and ingenuity could devise to insure the safety of the building and its art treasures."
During the two and a half years in which the workmen were engaged on the restoration works there were no serious accidents. However on one occasion a ponderous iron beam fell among them from the summit of the Castle rock, a height of 100 feet. It caused no further inconvenience to those who had charge of it than that of having to dig it six feet out of the ground.
The redundant old road, which during the ducal occupation of the building was the tradesmen's entrance, was blocked up and planted over, and a new road was formed running over what was once the medieval palace. The approach to the grounds, after passing through the old gatehouse, is now by handsome wrought-iron gates with massive piers. A couple of wooden structures form the two terminations of the same. These are of unobtrusive character, assuming to be nothing more that what they are, viz. sheds for the ticket takers and policemen.
His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, formally opened the building, now the MIDLAND COUNTIES MUSEUM AND GALLERY OF ART, on 3 July 1878.
Based on T. C. Hine's published description of the work he carried out at the Castle, adapted by Ken Brand.
Notes
1) Few of these plans have been located.
2) The flight of steps located on the eastern front of the building were removed
to meet the requirements of the Volunteer battalion of the Robin Hood Rifles,
whose recruits were drilled there.
3) It is interesting
to note that Hine referred to the Castle as "the old chateau" He
also stated that "could the ultimate destiny of the Castle have been
then foreseen," the removal of the flight of steps which adorned the
eastern front of the building would not have been sanctioned.
Ken Brand
