Herbert L. North, Arts & Crafts Architect in N. Wales

Herbert L. North 1871 – 1941.

On November 21st 2024, members and visitors braved the sleet and icy wind to hear Dr Liz Parfitt talk about Herbert L. North. Before embarking on her current career, Liz worked at Brown University in the USA where she specialised on volcanic features on Venus as part of NASA’s Magellan mission, including working in the mission control building. She has also worked as a lecturer at the University of Leeds and is the author of a widely-used textbook on Physical Volcanology.

After retraining, Liz worked as a project archivist in various areas. She has been an archivist at Conwy since 2021, and has an especial interest in collections relating to the built environment, which led to her research into the subject of this evening’s talk. Liz explained that, aside from the plans which Conwy Archives holds, she has 3 main sources: Adam Voelker’s book Herbert Luck North (2011), Ian Allan’s PhD thesis Life and Work of Herbert L. North (1988), and North’s granddaughter, Pam, who lives in the house her grandfather built, and has been generous in sharing memories and photographs.

Liz began with a brief introduction to the Arts and Crafts Movement, personified by figures such as John Ruskin and William Morris in the mid-19th century. This developed as a reaction to the rapid industrialization of the time and the mass production of goods. Proponents recognised that traditional skills were being lost as craftsmen became factory workers, and additionally there were concerns about poor housing and living conditions. The movement encompassed subsets such as the pre-Raphaelite painters, designers and architects, with the latter being in their heyday around 1880-1920. North, who graduated from Cambridge in 1893, was in the second wave. His initial interest was in church architecture, and he trained with Henry Wilson, then later with Edwin Lutyens, an ambitious and influential architect with a new practice in London.

We saw photographs of various buildings embodying the Arts and Crafts Movement’s ethos – buildings which were influenced by the past, but not copies of the past. Elements they have in common are their vernacular style (i.e.in keeping with local architecture); use of local materials such as bricks, slate or tiles; craftsmanship, attention to detail and beauty; and the complete design of all aspects including interior design, textiles, fireplaces, shutters etc. Most of these buildings are found in England, particularly the south east, which makes North’s buildings in our corner of N. Wales all the more valuable.

In 1908, North produced The Old Cottages of Snowdonia along with Harold Hughes, showing his interest in, and knowledge of, local materials and traditional construction methods. This is evidenced by the fact that stonework on his buildings in Llanfairfechan is rendered, but is left exposed on, for example, Keldwith - a house he designed in the Lake District where the local tradition is for exposed stonework.

Whilst embracing the tenets of the Arts and Crafts Movement mentioned above, North also brings a Gothic twist to his work, perhaps pointing to his first love of church architecture, and one of his signature features is pointed Gothic arches, which can be found on the exterior and the interior, including fireplaces and in one case a whole lodge entrance, and in another a serving hatch. Other distinguishing features are long slate roofs, often with a change in angle as they descend; M-shaped gables; and unusual chimney stacks and pots – though these have often been changed to more conventional ones over the years.

Gate House at Penrhyd Tal-Y-Cafn (Copyright Conwy Archive Service, CCBC)

Liz pointed out these motifs in the Church Institute, Llanfairfechan and the smaller Churchmen’s Club nearby (the latter built after WW1 at the request of returning soldiers, as the former had been taken over by women and their activities during the War!); Gyffin National School; Dolgellau Hospital; Church Hostel Chapel, Bangor; and St Winifred’s School, Llanfairfechan. North designed all the buildings and classrooms at St Winifred’s, and an extraordinary chapel with a beautiful interior featuring colourful ceilings, between 1929-1930. The school closed in 1969 and the site was sold to a developer, who tragically demolished the chapel the following year.

St Winifred’s Chapel, Llanfairfechan (Copyright Conwy Archive Service, CCBC)

Dean Roberts Hall, St Winifred’s School, Llanfairfechan (Copyright Conwy Archive Service, CCBC)

Llanfairfechan contains the greatest concentration of North houses as it was where he lived and where his family owned land; the estate now known as The Close began as 4 houses and then grew to the 24 which exist now. These display many key North features, and the area can be explored via a walking tour hosted by the History Points website.

There is also a cluster of North houses along Deganwy Road. In the early 1930s, the auctioneer and estate agent R. Arthur Jones bought a piece of land to develop a housing estate and outdoor swimming pool, collectively known as the Vardre Park Development. He asked North to design some of the houses, and the plans for most of these are in Conwy Archives. They show that in c. 1930 the furthest limit of Deganwy was ‘Mr Grundy’s bungalows with red tiles’ (still in existence). North designed 5 houses for R. Arthur Jones and 3 for a local builder, Mr Wilson. These are slightly stylistically different from his earlier ones – by then, the company was known as North and Padmore, incorporating his business partner who was also his son-in-law, and Padmore’s input may explain some of the changes, such as rounded rather than pointed arches. It was also the start of a new era, with houses aimed at a middle class who were beginning to own cars, hence the inclusion of garages.

Deganwy Road, Deganwy (Copyright Conwy Archive Service, CCBC)

During her research, Liz uncovered a plan for another North dwelling on Deganwy Road – intriguingly titled ‘Trio for Miss Hale’. This shows one building divided into 3 small properties with an integral garage, and with a bit of detective work she identified it as a house, now seemingly split into two, further up the road on the hill towards Llanrhos. More work is needed to uncover the story of Miss Hale!

Liz ended by showing us Caerhun Parish Hall, built in 1902, with a distinctive pattern in the roof tiles. Behind it is Liz’s favourite North building: a coalstore in the shape of an equilateral triangle, with a pattern in its tiles echoing that of the much larger building. It exemplifies the Arts and Crafts ideal of attention to detail in the humblest building.

Conwy Archive Service holds many building control plans, including those for the Cob, Llanfairfechan, where some of North’s most iconic houses were built in 1900, for The Close, and for the later houses built along Deganwy Road. You are welcome to visit and view these during opening hours, and to research your own house history even if you’re not lucky enough to live in a North house.

Many thanks to Liz for such a meticulously researched and entertaining talk. Herbert L. North’s buildings hold a special place in people’s hearts; their appeal lies in a combination of their thoughtfulness, their beauty and their quirkiness. We are very lucky to have so many on our doorstep – follow Liz’s advice and go out and look at some!