Building record 979/0/14 - Bath House Barn, The Pound

Barn, built of red brick with a corrugated iron roof. 1885-1900. Used by the Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps and, later, as a bath house. Locally listed building.

{1} Barn built in the late 19th century. It waslater used as a rifle range in association with the 1st Althorp Company of the Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps in the earlier 20th century, but in 1946 it was converted into a bath house on the initiative of Earl Spencer. It was opened by the Earl, the MP for Kettering Lt Col John Profumo MP and the Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

{2} Reasons for currently not Listing the Building
CONTEXT

English Heritage has received an application to list the Village Bath House in Great Brington. It is located in Great Brington Conservation Area. A planning application for up to twenty dwellings on the 1.1 acre field behind the Bath House is expected to be submitted. The owner's plans for the Bath House are not yet known but they could include demolition or conversion to a dwelling.

HISTORY AND DETAILS

The Bath House was built between 1885 and 1900 (the dates of the first and second Ordnance Survey maps) as an agricultural barn for the small-holding of New Cross Farm. It was being used for hand threshing as late as the Second World War. The lean-to on the south elevation does not appear on the 1900 OS map but was built at some point before 1914. The building was used as a small bore rifle range, and the extension could have related to this later function. There was a strong local military connection dating back to 1859 when the 1st Althorp Company of the Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps was raised by the 5th Earl Spencer. Shooting was especially encouraged, as evidenced by numerous Spencer prizes for marksmanship.

In 1946 the building was converted to a bath house with two bathrooms and two shower rooms, on the initiative of Earl Spencer. This was of great benefit to the villagers as few of the cottages had running water and most had only a stone sink in the kitchen. The Bath House was opened by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1946, who also planted an oak tree on the adjoining village green which is still there. He was accompanied by the Earl and Lt Col John Profumo MP, the local Conservative MP for Kettering who was later to earn national notoriety.

The building is constructed of red brick and has a pitched roof clad in corrugated iron. It has dentilled eaves, and the east elevation (which is visible from Main Street) has neo-Tudor timbering in the gable end. There are four double-leaf timber doors painted in Althorp brown. Internally, the partition walls from the bath house conversion remain, although the baths and showers have been removed. The stable at the western end has a cobbled floor and manger.

DISCUSSION

The Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings (March 2010) sets out the broad criteria when buildings are considered for designation. Before 1700, all buildings that contain a significant proportion of their original fabric are listed; from 1700 to 1840, most buildings are listed; after 1840, because of the greatly increased number of buildings erected and the much larger numbers that have survived, progressively greater selection is necessary. The English Heritage Selection Guide for Agricultural Buildings (April 2011) outlines how the years 1880-1940 saw a prolonged and regionally varied agricultural depression from which farming did not recover until the Second World War. Very little from this period fulfils the listing criteria. Buildings tended to be of the cheapest materials such as corrugated iron and many were prefabricated. Only the wealthiest farmers and landowners continued to build model or experimental farms, which could be of some architectural sophistication, otherwise there was little fresh investment due to the farming depression in this period. The Selection Guide for Sport and Recreation Buildings is also relevant, noting that England’s first genuinely public baths were built as a result of the 1846 Baths and Wash-houses Act. These concentrated on providing laundries, slipper baths (for individual bathing) and small plunge pools for communal bathing, some hundred years prior to the Great Brington Bath House.

On the basis of the evidence to hand the Bath House at Great Brington is not recommended for designation for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: despite the timber detailing in the east gable end, the building is a standard example of a late-C19/ early C20 barn constructed out of typical materials, of which there are many surviving examples throughout the country; * Alterations: other than the cobbled floor and manger in the west part of the building, no other fixtures or fittings remain to illustrate its various uses as a barn, rifle range, and bath house.

CONCLUSION

The Bath House at Great Brington may be considered to have local interest as an agricultural building that evolved throughout the C20 to provide various local community functions, but it does not have special architectural and historic interest from a national perspective and should not be added to the statutory List.

<1> Daventry District Council, 2021, Great Brington Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, Adopted March 2021, p. 54 (Policy Document). SNN112660.

<2> English Heritage, Designation Advice Report, The Pound, Great Brington (Report). SNN113190.

Record last edited

May 12 2025 9:35AM