Listed Building record TR 15 SE 298 - THE CLOSE, Bridge/Bridge Union Workhouse, Union Road, Bridge

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5273 BRIDGE UNION ROAD (north side)
The Close TR 15 SE 13/211
II
2. Formerly the Workhouse. Dated 1835. Tall centre building of two storeys in brick with hipped Welsh slate roof, with lower side wings of 2 storeys which continue round to form a court to rear. Centre has 5 bays divided by pilasters, with 3 windows to first floor in alternate bays. Three windows to ground floor, two of which to the outer bays, as those above. Centre segmental- headed carriage entry with keystone now blocked by two modern doors. Lower wings of seven bays to the right, four to the left, segmental-headed windows with glazing bars, Welsh slate roofs. In the courtyard to the rear a chapel with belfry divides the former male and female ranges.
Listing NGR: TR1795654359 (1)

Description from record TR 15 SE 301:
The Control Centre for the Bridge-Blean Rural District was in the Public Assistance Institution in Bridge. This was presumably on Union Road, and I am assuming it was what is now called ‘The Close’ (N.B.this may be incorrect!). The Control Centre had been established by December 1940 (probably much earlier). The building was at first protected with sandbags, but these, showing signs of weakness, were later (between 5 December 1940 and 13 March 1941) replaced with ‘hollow concrete blocks’. Around September 1941 an air-raid siren was fixed to the building. It seems to have been a one-and-a-half horse-power Steam Siren (perhaps powered from the institutional laundry). By mid September 1942, however, this had been replaced by an awesome four-horse-power electric siren on an iron platform, erected ‘on land belonging to S. Gilbert’ (it is not yet clear where this was; Gilbert was proprietor of a blacksmith’s on the High Street). Much of the Bridge-Blean Rural-District civil-defence infrastructure was situated in Bridge, including a Rescue Party depot, transport garage, and decontamination centre, but it has not yet been possible to determine where any of these were. Around the 11 May 1942 it was determined to make Bridge a triumvirate, and this will probably have centred on the Public Assistance Institution (2)
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : Unknown
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : unknown
Date of visit :

Formerly the Workhouse, dated 1835. Tall centre building of two storeys with lower side wings of two storeys which continue round to form a court at the rear. In the courtyard to the rear is a chapel which divided the former male and female ranges. Now a house. [1]

Bridge Union Workhouse was built between 1835 and 1836 at a cost of £4376 and could accommodate 350 inmates. The architect was George Lancefield of Canterbury who followed Sir Francis Head's model courtyard plan. The builder was T. F. Cousins of Canterbury. It was a red brick building with pilasters on the outer walls, wooden eaves with circular ventilators and a slated roof. It faced the south west and comprised four, two storey ranges around a central courtyard entered through a carriage arch in the central block of the front range. The front range comprised a central block with a hipped roof, flanked by lower ranges. It had a segmental headed entrance arch with a stone keystone inscribed with the date 1836. It provided a kitchen, store room, Governors' room, committee room and accommodation for the Master. The Master's block had a central oriel window which provided a view over the whole establishment. A chapel was added in about 1846 and a casual ward block, stable block, coach house and dead house were erected between 1869 and 1871. The casual ward block was based on a single-cell system, with a sleeping cell on either side of the central corridor. Following the Local Government Act in 1929, the workhouse became a Public Assistance Institution. During the 1970s, it was used as a nursing home before it was converted to residential use in around 1982. The former workhouse building and chapel survive although several alterations have been carried out. The casual ward block and stables have been demolished. [2-4]

Historic England archive material: 95/03081 BRIDGE WORKHOUSE/THE CLOSE This photographic job has yet to be fully catalogued.
BF100943 The Close formerly Bridge Union Workhouse.

<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> Bridge Blean Rural District Council, 01/01/39, Bridge Blean Rural District Council War Administration Minute Books (Unpublished document). SKE15277.

<3> Peter Higginbotham, 2000, The Workhouse (Website). SKE56079.

<4> Kathryn Morrison, 1999, The Workhouse: A Study of Poor Law Buildings in England (Monograph). SKE58618.