Decorative plasterwork c.1623, re-used in 1923

The Winding Wheel, as it has been known since 1987, was built as a cinema called The Picture House which opened on 10 September 1923. Designed by the Sheffield architect, Harold Joseph Shepherd [1888-1961], he was also responsible for alterations in 1930 which added a ballroom on the first-floor. The coved ceiling of the upstairs foyer, is divided into alternating sections of decorative plasterwork. Much of this is readily identifiable as an Arts & Crafts version of Jacobean ornament, where the scale of the work is somewhat large and chunky.

The Picture House, Holywell Street, Chesterfield, 1923

The Winding Wheel upstairs foyer ceiling

However, 3 sections of this ceiling have, at their centres, strapwork cartouches with sprays of hop-vine which, in scale, appear to be precise copies of a local Jacobean original. Two other similar strapwork cartouches of the same scale, dating from 1623, survive from a six-compartment ceiling which graced the great chamber in Norton House, demolished in 1878. The Duke of Norfolk rescued this ceiling which was later presented to the University of Sheffield when Firth Court was built in 1903-05. There, the ornamental plasterwork from all six Norton House ceiling compartments was incorporated into the ceilings of the Senior Common Room and Vice Chancellor's room by the Sheffield-born architect, Edward Mitchel Gibbs [1847-1935].

Norton House second strapwork cartouche, 1623

The two strapwork cartouches from Norton House and those at The Winding Wheel are all hand-modelled. The central oval panel, mounted on a pattress with scrolls, has extensions which pierce the pattress and terminate in trefoils and other forms. In each case the plasterwork of the pattress is inscribed to make a narrow border. This outlining is also a distinct technique seen in the strapwork cartouches in the Parlour ceiling at Carbrook Hall c.1623. The Winding Wheel cartouches have small circles impressed in the vertical extensions, which are not present in one of the Norton House examples, which is otherwise virtually identical. However, these circles are also impressed within the border of the pattress of the second cartouche from Norton House, indicating that they all share a common workshop origin. Impressed circles are not only present in these examples, but also at Cartledge Hall on the strapwork panel supporting the crest of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.

Carbrook Hall strapwork cartouche, c.1623

The triangles cut out of the strapwork at top, bottom and each side of the Norton House & Winding Wheel cartouches are also slightly different in each example. However, the main point of similarity are the sprays of hop-vine: the stems are hand-modelled but the individual leaves, fruits and flowers are cast from moulds. Apart from these examples the only other occurrence of these hop-vine sprays is on the parlour chamber overmantel at Bishops’ House, Norton Lees, created in 1632-4.

It seems that a grotesque mask with attendant hop-vine¹ may have been the design source for the individual fruits, flowers and leaves making up the hop-vine spray. When stripped of the foliage, this same mask design – but from a different mould and with added horns - provided the central ornament of the Norton House cartouches. This particular mask, in a cut-down form set on a strapwork cartouche, can also be seen in the parlour frieze at Renishaw Hall, traditionally dated 1625.

Bramley Hall grotesque mask with hop-vine

Renishaw Hall grotesque mask, traditionally dated 1625

The 3 cartouches at The Winding Wheel are so alike that it is possible they may be copies of a lost original or, as is more likely, one of them is the genuine article and copies were made in 1923 to fill the other 2 compartments of the upstairs foyer ceiling. In support of this, it is important to note that all 3 compartments containing the strapwork cartouche have precisely the same 4 ornaments repeated in the corners. The rose and the fleur-de-lis, although traditional ornamental motifs, are not cast from moulds commonly used in the region in the early 17th century. They have a distinct Arts & Crafts appearance, as does the wheat-sheaf motif which – whilst forming the central element to the 16th century crest of William Lord Burghley - is not found in decorative plasterwork of the Jacobean period.

However, the dolphin motif which occupies the fourth corner of all 3 compartments, is readily identifiable as a local ornament. Casts from the same mould appear in the ceiling from Norton House [1623]; and at Renishaw Hall [1625]; and in a frieze at Unthank Hall. Hallfield House in Bradfield Dale, and Bramley Hall [1638], Marsh Lane, Eckington, also have this dolphin motif but cast from a different mould.

At least one of the dolphins at The Winding Wheel, together with at least one of the strapwork cartouches ornamented with sprays of hop-vine, are likely to be genuine survivals from a local 17th century ceiling. They are the only locally recognizable ornaments within the entire scheme of decorative plasterwork in the building. Not only this, but they have a distinct delicacy in scale and appearance lacking in the robust faux-Jacobean plasterwork with which they are associated. It seems inconceivable that in 1923 the architect - or his plasterers – would have chosen only the dolphin and the strapwork cartouche if the intention had been to deliberately copy plasterwork from local houses of the early 17th century. It may be that the Sheffield architect, Harold J Shepherd, was well aware of how the Norton House ceiling ornaments had been re-used at Firth Court in 1905, and that he had a similar opportunity to re-use ornaments saved from a demolished property in Chesterfield in the early 1920s. This is all speculation, of course, but the period following the end of World War I saw considerable redevelopment in Chesterfield, when old property was cleared away – as was the case along Holywell Street – to make way for new buildings such as The Picture House.

It is not known from where the dolphin and strapwork cartouche might have come. However, it is possible to suggest owners of properties in Chesterfield who had the financial means, business associations with people in Norton, and family links with Greenhill in Norton where the plasterers² lived, to have commissioned decorative plasterwork for their homes.

In 1623 the decorative plasterwork at Norton House was installed for Leonard Gill, a leading gentleman in the parish of Norton with extensive lands and lead industry interests. An Agreement³ survives, dated 30 April 1622, in which he is named alongside six Chesterfield merchants & manufacturers, concerning the upkeep of the wharves at Bawtry from where lead and other goods were shipped to Hull. Of these, the only named merchant from Chesterfield with obvious connections to Greenhill in Norton was Richard Taylor [c.1582-1637], mayor of Chesterfield in 1623 & 1636-7. He had married Elizabeth More [1593-1644], daughter of George More of Greenhill⁴, gentleman, on 27 November 1611 at Norton parish church. Her mother’s brother, Thomas Stringer of Hemsworth in Norton, is also named in the 1622 Agreement. Richard Taylor died in 1637 and his will, dated 11 November 1637, was proved in the Probate Court of Canterbury on 12 February 1638. Unfortunately, no inventory survives which would have given an impression of the Chesterfield property in which he lived.

Richard Taylor was described as ‘my lovinge freinde’ in the will of Nicholas Clarke [1594-1637] of Chesterfield, vintner. He married Juliana More [1596-1643], the youngest daughter of George More of Greenhill, on 21 October 1623 at Chesterfield parish church and, thus, he and his friend Richard Taylor became brothers-in-law. Nicholas Clarke, as well as holding the position of Town Clerk of Chesterfield, owned The Castle Inn - later re-named The Angel Hotel⁵ - in the Market Place. His will, dated 20 July 1637, was proved in the Probate Court of Lichfield on 18 October 1637. An inventory, seemingly no longer extant, was seen by the local historian Rosemary Milward, who described Nicholas Clarke’s large premises in an article published in 1980⁶. These consisted of Hall, Parlour, Upper Parlour, Great Chamber, and several further chambers – as well as the usual range of service rooms. She described how ‘One room was panelled with benches fixed to the wall’ and how all the rooms were well furnished with wooden furniture, textiles, pictures, a looking glass and a pair of virginals. Nicholas Clarke’s goods were valued at £563-0-0, a considerable sum of money. He was just the right person with the wealth, connections and premises to have installed a plasterwork ceiling shortly after his marriage in 1623 – the very year in which the Norton House plasterwork and panelling was created.

Nicholas Clarke died in 1637, and was buried on 8 September in Chesterfield church. His widow, Juliana, seemingly continued the business until her own death in 1644. Thereafter, The Angel was managed by their son, Richard Clarke. He was a highly successful townsman, and the rare survival of a map dated 1668 shows The Angel to have been one of the most substantial properties in Chesterfield.

Chesterfield map dated 1668 showing The Angel Hotel

Detail from the 1668 Chesterfield map showing The Angel Hotel

In the morning of 10 February 1917, The Angel Hotel in Chesterfield was extensively damaged by fire. A report in the Derby Daily Telegraph that day commented upon The Angel being centuries old and how “visitors were shown a room in which Mary Queen of Scots stayed whilst on one of her journeys into Derbyshire.” This was, perhaps, the ‘Upper Parlour’ of the 1637 inventory. In addition, the old ball-room and banqueting hall – perhaps the ‘Great Chamber’ and ‘Hall’ of the 1637 inventory - were described as “adorned with oak panelling magnificently carved”. Clearly, The Angel had early decorative interiors of some significance which were lost in the fire. The ruins of the building which had stood abandoned for several years were finally demolished in 1926. In the interim, any fragments of decorative plasterwork surviving from the early part of the building on the site – perhaps the Mary Queen of Scots room - might readily have been salvaged for eventual re-use in The Picture House [aka The Winding Wheel] in 1923.

David Bostwick
1 December 2024

The Winding Wheel, Holywell Street, Chesterfield

Decorative plasterwork c.1623, re-used in 1923