The Friends of Oakworth (Holden) Park
Sir Isaac Holden's Summer House
The history, and our restoration work

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The Friends of Oakworth (Holden) Park Logo

 The Summer House was part of Oakworth House, and is one of the few features of the old building remaining in the park.
This page will track the work we are carrying out on the Summer House to restore it's beauty and turn it into a useful information centre for the park.
We decided as a group that the Summer House would be best used by turning it into an information centre for visitors to the park. Its position near to the entrance made it an ideal choice for this use.
This was part of our original plans for the park and something that we have been doing alongside other projects.

Summer House work schedule
Pictures of the Summerhouse in 2004 before any work was carried out (Please click on any picture to enlarge in a new window).

Overhead view of the Summer House (44072 bytes)

View from the cave entrance (42882 bytes)

Front elevation (47680 bytes)

The ceiling inside, showing where the skylight window used to be (45490 bytes)

View inside the Summer House (43795 bytes)

View inside the Summer House (44276 bytes)

View inside the Summer House (45739 bytes)

View inside the Summer House (43860 bytes)

View of the Summer House roof, showing the cracks and damaged areas(46914 bytes)

Pictures of the new doors and windows complete with fully galvanized ornamental grilles. These were fitted in Summer 2005

Front elevation with new doors, windows and ornamental grilles (48723 bytes)

Front door and grilles (38711 bytes)

Side windows and grilles (38976 bytes)

Sadly, the day after the new grilles and windows were fitted, one of the windows was smashed by vandals with a large piece of stone. We had this repaired straight away and since then they have been left undisturbed.

Large stones used to smash the window (43060 bytes)

The broken window, two days after they were fitted (44385 bytes)

In 2005, along with the installation of floodlights for the Bowling green and War memorial areas, we also had an electrical supply fed to the Summer House. But were not allowed to use this as the roof was still leaking and this constituted a health and safety hazard.
The concealed door at the side of the Summer House.
This door was a private entrance used by Sir Isaac Holden when he attended the Methodist church next door.
It was found broken off its hinges one day, and Council workmen had it repaired pretty quickly.

View of the rear of the Summer House, looking from the Methodist church side, showing the private doorway (48111 bytes)

The top hinge of the door (42735 bytes)

The top hinge of the door (48775 bytes)

The door lying in the doorway (44799 bytes)

The repaired door, viewed from the inside (46216 bytes)

The repaired door, viewed from the outside (47363 bytes)

During November 2006, the Summer House roof, was repaired with funding from the Council. The following pictures are from during and after the repair work and fitting of the protective fibreglass layer.
This work will allow us to clean and decorate the inside and fit display boards etc for visitors.
We may also now use the electrical supply inside the Summer House, enabling us finally to have lights installed.

The roof being fitted with decking timbers (45402 bytes)

The roof being fitted with decking timbers (43284 bytes)

The roof being fitted with verge formers for an upstand (48958 bytes)

The finished roof (46745 bytes)

Close up detail of the finished roof (48693 bytes)

The finished roof (49078 bytes)

 

If you have any questions or comments, please email the site webmaster Andy Wade