Red House Museum
Red House Museum, Gomersal
|
|
| Established | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Location | Oxford Road, Gomersal, West Yorkshire, England BD19 4JP |
| Type | Historic house museum. |
| Website | www.kirklees.gov.uk |
Red House Museum is a historic house museum, built in 1660 and renovated in the Georgian era. It is a Grade II* listed building in Gomersal, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England.
Red House was built by William Taylor whose descendants owned it until 1920. The Taylor family had lived in Gomersal for more than a century when in 1660, William Taylor built a brick house next to their old one. The family were farmers and clothiers who developed their business into cloth finishing and became merchants.
The old house was standing in 1713 and surrounding workshops contained items for cloth manufacture. The old house was probably demolished when the barn to the west of the house and coach house were built in the mid-18th century. The house is constructed of red brick, unusual in a village built of local sandstone, and consequently was named the Red House. The exterior and interior were remodelled during the 18th century, and in 1920 the parlour and dining room windows were enlarged.
The house was Grade II* listed in January 1967 for its historic, industrial and literary interest and because it "contains some good survivals of the Georgian period, including a staircase, fireplaces and windows, embedded in a late C17 core." Also of interest are the barn and coach house. Spenborough Council bought the house in 1969 and it opened as a museum five years later.
The two-storey house is built of red brick with stone quoins and has a stone slate roof that is hipped at the front and four gables to the rear. The doorway is off-centre and has a sash window and a canted bay window to either side. The upper storey has three double and two single sash windows. The rear wall with four gables was rebuilt between 1995 and 1997.
The house is decorated and furnished to suggest its appearance during the 1830s when Joshua Taylor, a woollen cloth manufacturer who owned a mill at Hunsworth near Cleckheaton, and his wife Anne and their six children were living there.
...
Wikipedia