Whitwood, Normanton, West Yorkshire

The entry in Pevsner's Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield & the South (with Ruth Harman, 2017) reads:

WHITWOOD, 1.5m SW, is a former colliery village with an attractive group of buildings in Whitwood Common Lane by C.F.A. Voysey for the Briggs family, owners of the colliery and his clients for Broadleys, Windermere. The former MINERS' WELFARE INSTITUTE (now RISING SUN pub) and a terrace of nineteen double-fronted COTTAGES for colliery officials were commissioned in 1904, built 1906-8. They are roughcast, with stone trim and tile bands, and have big tiled roofs with tall chimney stacks, gables and deep-swept eaves. The window surrounds in particular are at once recognizable as Voysey. The institute, originally very pretty but now a little altered, is L-shaped and a long single storey, originally with open veranda (now glazed) between gables. At the corner a four-storey square tower for the manager's house with crenellated top around a pyramid roof and taller chimney at the corner. Some original panelling and fireplaces inside. The terrace is accented by seven gabled houses separating pairs with hipped dormers. Though modest their neat interiors demonstrate Voysey's genius for convenience and economy. The architect's simpler BRIGGS MEMORIAL HALL, behind the institute, was built in memory of Arthur Currer Briggs died 1906). Battered buttresses and a large lunette in the gable above the canted, flat-roofed entrance porch. Five similar windows at the sides.

Despite the Historic England listing description, it is now thought that the Memorial Hall was not designed by Voysey, although sympathetic to his style. The British architect (20th March 1908, p.206) commented that "the company found it necessary to build the houses so cheaply that the architectural superintendence of the work was perforce left out of count".

Images from The British architect, 20th March 1908.