History of Dr Buck’s House

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Origins and early ownership

The first known record of this Grade II listed Georgian merchant house dates from 1787, when it was listed as part of a block of property owned by John Constantine, a butcher, which also included two dwelling houses on the west side, a dwelling/shop on the north side, a currier’s shop, barns, yards, two gardens and an orchard.

By the 1830s, the house seems to have been acquired by William Howson, a wine merchant whose name survives in Howson’s Yard behind the property. During the mid-nineteenth century it became the town’s central medical practice. By 1851, Thomas Robinson was listed at the Market Place address as a surgeon, apothecary and accoucheur. Edward Harrison, a licensed apothecary and member of the Royal College of Surgeons, was also resident there. In the 1861 census, William Altham, whose practice Dr Charles Buck later acquired, was listed as a licensed apothecary in the Market Place house alongside Harrison. By 1871, the practice was owned by Dr William Altham and Dr James Hartley, who used the ground floor as their surgery and dispensary. Dr Altham lived at Ashfield House in Settle; Dr Hartley lived in the accommodation above the surgery with his wife and two sons, and three domestic staff. After qualifying as a surgeon in 1875, Dr Charles Buck purchased the practice and the house on Market Place in 1878 and established himself there. On his retirement in 1907, he sold the practice to Dr Arthur Lovegrove, although the house remained part of the Buck family estate until 1937.

A man in Victorian riding dress on horseback outside a building identified by the name plate as the surgery of C.W. Buck in Settle. A large dog stands next to the horse. The ground is covered in snow.
Dr Arthur Lovegrove outside the house. The name plate above the door
identifies it as Dr Buck’s surgery

Dr Buck and Sir Edward Elgar

Dr Charles William Buck (1851–1932) was born in Settle and trained in medicine in Manchester and London. After qualifying as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1875, he returned to the town and established himself as a general practitioner in the Georgian house on the north side of the Market Place that now bears his name. The building served as both his home and surgery, with a dispensary where he prepared medicines for his patients.

Plaque commemorating Sir Edward Elgar on the front of Dr Buck's House

A gifted amateur cellist, Buck met the young Edward Elgar at the British Medical Association’s jubilee conference in Worcester in 1882. Their shared interests in music, the countryside and dogs began a lifelong friendship. Elgar soon visited Buck in Settle and returned regularly until at least 1900, staying first at Cravendale in Giggleswick and later at the Market Place house. Their association is commemorated by the plaque on the building, installed by the Elgar Society on 13 May 1989.

From surgery to bank

The building continued in use as a doctor’s residence and surgery until 1934, when (according to some accounts) it may temporarily have been used as offices by the owners of the Nuvic Cinema. In 1937, it was sold and the ground floor remodelled to become the local branch of the District Bank, with accommodation for the bank manager and his family above. The conversion included the addition of a small rear extension and a bank vault. Latterly occupied by the NatWest Bank, the branch closed in October 2017 and the building then stood vacant until purchased by the Trust to rescue it from further dereliction.