Yewbank and Millbank
Location/Address
43 Langham Road and 3 Vicarage Lane, Bowdon
Type
Description
Marked 'Yewbank' on the Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 1:2500 map of 1877. The building is a pair of semi-detached houses on a rectangular corner plot. The width of the plot originally allowed for an embanked garden between the building and Vicarage Lane and for rear yard areas to the rear of the building. The front garden turns the corner onto Langham Road to give Yew Bank two street (and garden) frontages. Access to the rear yards was by way of a narrow route from Langham Road separated from the Yew Bank garden by soft landscaping. The front garden continues southwards to open into a more extensive garden area serving, and to the south of, Mill Bank. This layout remains evident, but the most southward area has been developed since the 1960’s for a separate house (No. 5 Vicarage Lane) within its own curtilage. Map regression does, however, show that an area of the embanked Vicarage Road front garden of Mill Bank had already been removed to provide for vehicle access/parking by (or during) the 1960’s. It is likely that this is associated with the revealing of a part of the basement elevation that would previously have been within a small lightwell as is suggested by what appears as an original basement window opening with arched brick head and doorway.
Other than this change at Mill Bank and modest extensions to the rear elevation of the building, the building retains its original appearance and architectural features although some windows/window openings to the rear elevation may have been altered.
The house has its three street and garden elevations in a light brown brick with considerable architectural detailing including an unusually deep, bracketed eaves feature. The level of brickwork detailing is unusually extensive even within this area of many contemporaneous brick buildings. The rear elevation is far plainer and in a red brick which accords with its lower status facing the rear yards.
A part of the front garden of Yew Bank has been given over to vehicle parking and a wide part of the original boundary wall removed to form a gated opening but re-using the original stone gateposts that presumably served the pedestrian access that was previously located closer to the street junction that has been closed re-using stone and copings removed for the vehicle gateway. Despite the changes at both Yew Bank and Mill Bank to provide additional within-curtilage vehicle parking, the within-curtilage area largely retains the original soft landscaped garden setting.
Identified as a 'positive contributor' to the Bowdon Conservation Area.
Statement of Significance
Age
19th century
Date Listed
24 Jul 2023
Last Updated
19 Jun 2023
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