Easingwold Union Workhouse is a historic building in

Easingwold Easingwold is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically, part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 4,233 at the 2001 census, increasing to 4,627 at the 2011 Census. I ...

, a town in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, in England. A

workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

was first recorded in Easingwold in 1756. A Poor Law Union was created in 1837, and it constructed a new workhouse, which was completed in 1838. It was designed by J. B. and W. Atkinson, and its construction cost about £2,600. It could house 130 people, the first of whom were admitted in October 1838. In 1934, North Riding County Council converted the building into the Claypenny Hospital, for mentally disabled people. Various other buildings were constructed, expanding the hospital's capacity to just under 400 patients. It came to focus on people with the most severe disabilities; and also on children. The hospital closed in 1993. The other hospital buildings were demolished, but the workhouse had been

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in 1984 and so was instead converted into flats. The building is constructed of pale brown brick, with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ed floor band and a Welsh

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. The central range has two storeys and five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

, and is flanked by

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d cross-wings with three storeys and one bay. In the centre is a doorway with a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

in a round-arched recess, and the windows are

sashes A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the human body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else encircling the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, ...

. The cross-wings contain tripartite sash windows, and in the top floor are

Diocletian window Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows characteristic of the enormous public baths (''thermae'') of Ancient Rome. They have been revived on a limited basis by some neo-classical architecture, classical rev ...

References

{{coord, 54.12616, -1.18475, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Easingwold Grade II listed buildings in North Yorkshire Workhouses in North Yorkshire

See also

References