York Historic Environment Record

This historic building record of a former coach house and stable now known as Magnolia Cottage along with a former chapel now office at The Chantry, Chantry Lane, Bishopthorpe, has been prepared by Lanpro Services on behalf of Vincent & Brown. The historic building recording has been undertaken to fulfil the requirements of listed building consent for internal and external alterations to Magnolia Cottage and the former chapel (21/01135/LBC). The Chantry has its origins in the 18th century and was greatly extended to the south in the 19th century. The buildings to the south, including Magnolia Cottage and the former chapel were added later in along with other structures since demolished. It is clear from physical inspection of the buildings and historic research, that the surviving extant structures have seen significant alteration, enlargement and rebuilding, consisting of three main phases of development, mostly in the 21st century. The current layout of Magnolia Cottage is a product of alterations carried out in 2016, although some extension was carried out earlier. Nearly all historic fabric has been obscured by these alterations, especially by plasterboard, drylining and plastering. The thick exterior paint scheme obscures the brickwork, although the bonding is visible and it is inferred from bare brick visible internally, that the whole main building is of this fabric Magnolia Cottage dates to at least 1851 when the Ordnance Survey map of that date shows a rectangular north/south aligned structure on west side of the current footprint to the south of the extended Chantry, this correlates with physical evidence such as vertical butt joins identified during the historic building recording. The building was extended to the east prior to 1893 and the chapel was also constructed around this time. The final phase of alteration relates to 21st century changes, most of which took place in 2016. These comprised the addition of the single storey side extension and probably all of the interior modifications including creation of new rooms and spaces. A small north extension was modified and enlarged, its roof now forming a contiguous covering with the side extension. The whole roof of the main structure was replaced. The chapel was also altered, the passageway between it and the Chantry being roofed over.