KING Arthur’s Great Halls in Tintagel have been upgraded to Grade II* by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England, giving them greater protection and recognition.

King Arthur’s Great Halls were designed as the headquarters for the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table and built between 1927 and 1933 by Frederick Thomas Glasscock (1871-1934), co-founder of the Monk & Glass custard company.

The halls embody the fellowship’s principles of knighthood, chivalry and honour through their architecture, fittings and decoration, which are still intact today — almost 100 years later. They include 73 stained-glass windows by artist Veronica Whall (1887-1967), the largest collection of her work anywhere in the world and widely-considered to be one of the finest examples of Arts and Crafts stained-glass windows. There is an extensive range of Cornish stones which were used throughout the building, reflecting Cornwall’s geological distinctiveness as well as a medievalist decorative scheme and a series of ten specially commissioned oil paintings.

The halls were entirely built by Cornish builders and craftspeople, which adds to their distinctiveness and importance to Cornwall’s architectural heritage. Stone dressers were bought in from Bodmin, and the main builder was George Climo, a Tintagel man who could not read or write.

Rachel Williams, listing team leader at Historic England in the South West, said: “Only 8% of all listed buildings are Grade II*, indicating their rarity and exceptional importance. King Arthur’s Great Halls have rightly been upgraded for their artistic richness and the major contribution they make to Cornish culture and architecture.”

Jeremy Chadburn, a conservation architect who submitted the application for upgrading with the encouragement of the building’s directors, said: “We are truly delighted that King Arthur’s Great Halls have been upgraded from Grade II to II*. The place is one of those gems that you come across by accident and walk away unexpectedly enriched — an almost otherworldly time capsule that plays a very special role in Cornwall’s rich history.”

The Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table

In around 1926, Frederick Glasscock and his wife, Esther, moved to Tintagel and quickly became generous benefactors in the village. Captivated by the Arthurian legend, Mr Glasscock, using the wealth he had acquired from selling his confectionary business, began to realise his dream of creating a building devoted to the legend of King Arthur.

Mr Glasscock founded the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table in 1927 and began to convert an early 19th century house, Trevena, to serve as the fellowship’s headquarters. The building reflects the fellowship’s principles of knighthood, chivalry and honour through richly symbolic art and architecture.

Part of Trevena house was turned into a council chamber for the fellowship. A collection of ten specially commissioned oil paintings telling the story of King Arthur and his Knights by William Hatherell (1855-1928), a skilled historical illustrator, still hang in the chamber.

In 1930 Mr Glasscock built the Great Exhibition Hall to the north of the chamber, designed as a theatre for the fellowship. The space was designed to give the impression of walking from darkness at the south end, to the light at the north end where knighting ceremonies took place. The building officially opened on June 5, 1933, with grandeur and lengthy reports in both the local and national press.

By the early 1930s, membership of the fellowship had reached 17,000. Mr Glasscock frequently travelled to America on recruiting drives and quickly branches were also established in Australia and Canada, alongside those in Britain.

The variety of Cornish stones used in the creation of Great Exhibition Hall showcase Cornwall’s distinctive geology; such a representation is not known in any other building.

The walls of the hall were set with 72 shields made from different polished granites and stones, coloured dark to light, from more than 50 Cornish quarries. The floor is laid with Polyphant stone from nearby Launceston, and at the north end of the hall is a throne complex carved in different Cornish granites weighing more than twenty tonnes. In front of the throne is a granite Round Table, weighing another tonne.

This ambitious use of Cornish stone was perhaps a reflection of Mr Glasscock’s own ambition to reflect the distinctiveness of Cornwall and the Arthurian legend within it.

The name Tintagel is now synonymous with the legend of King Arthur, which remains a driver of tourism to the town. Mr Glasscock’s fellowship and its headquarters building helped cement those associations and encouraged travel to experience the legend first-hand. King Arthur’s Great Halls are an integral part of the representation of the Celtic revival and an emblem of it.