Grassington Devonshire Institute

The building was commissioned by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, whose local seat was at Bolton Abbey as a mechanics' institute for the town in the mid-19th century. The site he selected was open land on the east side of the village. It was designed in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1855. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of four bays facing onto Main Street. The second bay from the left, which was slightly projected forward, was gabled and contained an octagonal clock face in the tympanum. All four bays were fenestrated by mullioned and transomed windows with the first floor windows taller than the ground floor windows. There…