Thelwall Heys including outbuildings and garden structures

Summary

A house (originally incorporating offices) dated 1864, by Alfred Waterhouse for the tanner William J Long, in Gothic Revival style with polychromatic brickwork and red sandstone dressings, and with associated outbuildings of similar style and period.

The house, former coach house and stables (including the dwelling known as Laundry Cottage) and garden walls and outbuildings are included in the listing. Garden Cottage (dating from around 1900, and altered) is excluded from the listing.

Reasons for Designation

Thelwall Heys, a house (with offices) of 1864 by Alfred Waterhouse, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a relatively early surviving example of a domestic commission by Waterhouse, an architect of the highest national stature;

* it has exterior detail very characteristic of Waterhouse’s robust Gothic style, notably the use of polychrome and patterned brickwork;

* it retains much of its interior layout and principal historic features;

* its interest is enhanced by the survival of a notable group of contemporary ancillary structures which illuminate the way in which this small estate functioned while it was inhabited by the owner who first commissioned it.

History

Thelwall Heys was commissioned in 1864 by William J Long, and sited close to Long’s tannery, on land overlooking the Bridgewater Canal. During the First World War the house was loaned as a hospital. Long’s daughter Marian returned to the house after the war, and family descendants lived here until 1996.

The house was a relatively early domestic commission for Alfred Waterhouse, who was at this time predominantly engaged in the design of public and commercial buildings. It was also unusual in combining a residence with offices. Long also commissioned Waterhouse to design a house in Windermere, though it has not been identified.

Service rooms, with a new rear entrance, were added to the north side of the house after 1879 but before 1893. A conservatory (heated from the cellar) was added during the same period, probably accessed by a door to the west of the chimney breast in the drawing room. This was replaced on the present footprint (preserving the heating arrangement and some cast-iron columns of the original) after 1926, and its superstructure was renewed in the late C20. Between 1893 and 1897, the single-storey extension to the north-eastern office range was added. The porch appears to have been altered several times, but probably originally gave direct entry to the house via the present window at the foot of the stairs. The present position of the entrance (under the stairs) probably dates from the addition of the glazed loggia to the north of the porch, between 1905 and 1926 (probably during the hospital use).

The 1882 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey (OS) map (surveyed in 1873) confirms that the coach-house and stable block is contemporary with the house (Long was a keen hunstman), as are the garden walls. Although parts of it had been occupied earlier, the coach house was extended as a dwelling (now known as Laundry Cottage) between 1879 and 1893, apparently during the survey fieldwork for the 1:10,560 OS map published in 1894. The loosebox with its pyramidal roof replaced an earlier building shown here on an 1879 estate map, after this fieldwork but before the survey for the 1898 OS map. The stable-yard canopy was erected between 1897 and 1905, as were the single-storey additions to the north-east corner of the coach-house. The small canopy over the coach entrance was added after 1926.

Glasshouses were added to the garden wall in the late C19. A small bothy in the centre of the walled garden was built in the first quarter of the C20, and in the same period the present outbuildings to the north of the house replaced earlier ones. In the late C20 the north-eastern length of garden wall was removed, opening the walled garden out to the eastern boundary wall. Around 2013 part of the greenhouses’ superstructures was removed, and the rest removed in 2021 or 2022.

Details

House (originally including offices), dated 1864, by Alfred Waterhouse for William J Long, in Gothic Revival style, with associated outbuildings.

MATERIALS: red-brown brick with yellow and blue brick banding and decoration, ashlar red sandstone dressings, steeply pitched slated roofs and timber sash windows.

PLAN: standing on higher ground above the Bridgewater Canal. L-plan house, with the main range aligned north-west to south-east, a lower range extending from the north-east corner, and single-storey service court to the north-west. Stables and coach-house to the north-east (partially converted as a dwelling, now known as Laundry Cottage) with associated cobbled yard, and attached to a garden wall extending north-eastwards and returning south-eastwards with former greenhouses against the south-east face, and a small bothy within the former walled garden.

HOUSE

EXTERIOR: of two storeys with attics, in Flemish bond brickwork. The front (north-east) façade is of three bays, gabled to the left and right. The left bay is blind, with central projecting tapered chimney breast incorporating an 1864 datestone with decorative intertwined numerals, and with a truncated stack.

The entrance is in the centre bay, which has a two-storeyed entrance porch (altered), with round stone with intertwined ‘WL’ monogram (William Long), and a pointed arched stone door surround, and vertically-planked door with elaborate strap hinges, knocker and escutcheon. The first-floor banding does not continue across the porch, and it has cornice stones to the angles above the ground floor. Its first floor has a two-light window and shallow parapet. To the right of the porch is a tall 3-light mullion and transom stair window with leaded glazing, above a leaded-glazed, lead-roofed, lean-to timber-framed loggia. Above is a four-light roof dormer.

The right-hand gabled wing advances and has a canted oriel to the inner face overlooking the loggia. The gable is blind but with decorative brickwork and banding, and a canted angle below a stone dragon-post at the first floor. The lower office range obscures the rest of the wing behind, and has hipped roofs with a cogged eaves band, and a shallow, stepped two-storey central bay window beneath a hipped gablet. It also has a canted left angle below a dragon-post. At the right is the side of a single-storey rear outshut to this range, while set further back to the right is the blind east wall of the service outbuildings.

The south-east end has a gabled bay at the left with projecting chimney breast flanked by windows and partially obscured by the conservatory, and the right-hand bay has a square bay window at the ground floor. Set back to the right is the front of the office range, with a central two-storey gabled bay window, with paired sash windows, and blind twin arches to the apex with polychrome brick decoration.

The south-west garden front has a canted 2-storey bay window to the centre, with polygonal pitched roof and iron finial. At the right-hand end is a narrow 2-storey gabled bay window with polychrome blind arch, sprocketed eaves, kneelers, cogging and a quatrefoil vent. Between these is a narrow doorway with stone steps up and a lean-to roof over. Decorative coloured brick bands at window head and sill levels, with diaper-work decoration between the bands at first-floor level. Long left-hand end with stacked paired single-light windows next to the canted bay.

The north-west end façade has a tall gable at the right with similar decoration to the garden gable, a small gabled dormer to the principal roof, and the hipped end with a gablet to the office range. In between the office range and the gabled wing is the late-C19, 2-storey service range, matching the earlier facades and with a small gable at the left, three windows per floor and an arched doorway at the right with summoning bell. The ground floor of the office range has a hipped single-storey lavatory extension.

INTERIOR: the entrance loggia is reached via a moulded stone archway and has patterned encaustic floor tiling. The loggia, foot-of-stair window and entrance door (all probably early-C20) have decorative leaded lights (vertical saddle bars with wrought-iron tridents to the door and window), and the stair window and oriel are also leaded. A porter’s window at the end of the loggia has a shouldered stone surround and stained glass.

The internal plan-form is little altered. Features of note include the pitch-pine dogleg stair (possibly altered at the foot) with carved newels, moulded handrails and (instead of balusters) diagonally-braced intermediate rails. There are hearths and fire surrounds to some principal rooms, and deeply-moulded skirting, architraves and plaster cornices, and 4-panel doors throughout. The first-floor room of the office range (now subdivided) retains exposed braced trusses. and the adjacent oriel window has a window seat. The dining room retains the service passage to the kitchen, a ceiling rose and fireplace. The lavatory extension to the office range has decorative wall-tiling and stained glass. The service wing has secondary stairs with carved balusters, an early-C20 service bell indicator box, and linen cupboards. The heating arrangement, some patterned floor tiling and some cast-iron columns of the original conservatory also survive. The cellar is stone-flagged and retains a vaulted probable ice-house with filling chute.

COACH HOUSE AND STABLES (INCLUDING LAUNDRY COTTAGE)

EXTERIOR: facing south-east, the original block T-shaped with a rear gabled outshot. English Garden Wall brickwork with some banded brick lintels, timber windows (pvc to dwelling). The façade is asymmetrical, with a central Tudor-arched recessed entrance with gableted window (pvc) above, a second gableted window (pvc) to the left over a modern garage door to the coach-house (with pent canopy over), and 12-pane stable casement window to the right with arched pitching hole above. End stacks (truncated at the right) and full-height off-centre ridge stack. At the left a single-storey, lean-to late-C19 extension with pvc window.

The entrance recess has a sash window and door to a tack room ahead (with wall-mounted fire ladder and pump-box), and in the left return a door to the coach-house and in the right return a door to the stables (with transom light). Attached at the right is a square, two-storey late-C19 loosebox with pyramidal roof and a finial (damaged at the time of inspection). Its ground floor is obscured by a garden building (currently used as garage or store) with a projecting early-C20 canopy, but its first floor has a segmental 16-pane casement. The inner return (facing the yard) has two 16-pane casements and a plank door with transom.

The south-west side return has an offset chimney breast to the left (full-height stack) and gable window (pvc). The lean-to extension returns along the rear under a catslide roof, with a full-height stack at the original eaves. The central outshot is gabled with pvc windows. To the left, the wall continues at single-storey height with a cogged band and a banded doorway, concealing a shallow roof with skylight. The wall above this roof is recessed. At the left is a pitching door above a single-storey extension of around 1900. The blind wall of the two-storey loosebox is visible, set back at the left.

The north-east wall has a mucking-out window, and corbelled chimney breast. To the loosebox, there is a first-floor door (possibly for a pigeon loft).

INTERIOR: the coach-house retains a stone-setted floor, the tack room is stone-flagged and the stables and loosebox have stone setts or tiles. The stables retain swept cast-iron and timber stall dividers, and timber feed chutes from the loft, with one manger bracket. The interior of the occupied dwelling (Laundry Cottage) is not thought to contain any features of interest.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: to the north-west of the house is an early-C20 range of single-storey service outbuildings, one of which retains stone worktops, a quarry-tile floor and a sliding timber wall vent.

The yard to the front of the coach-house block is surfaced with river cobbles and stone setts, and some textured bricks.

The mid-C19 garden walls have stone copings and shallow buttresses to the outer face. Against the south-east face are the low brick walls with stone copings of the former glasshouses. Their tiled and patterned floors, decorative cast-iron floor gratings and some heating pipework also survive.

The early-C20 gardener’s bothy has wainscotting and a corner fireplace.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

480080

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cunningham, Colin, Waterhouse, Prudence, Alfred Waterhouse, 1830-1905: Biography of a Practice, (1992), 227

Websites
Aerial photograph of 1948, ref EAW017533, accessed 26/09/25 from https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW017533
Thelwall tithe map 1845, accessed 26/09/25 from https://maps.cheshireeast.gov.uk/tithemaps/

Other
Map of Thelwall Heys estate 1879 by Richard Dutton Jr of Lymm (kept at the house)
Ordnance Survey maps: 1:10,560 (1882), 1:2,500 (1894, 1898, 1907, 1928, 1968)
Google Earth aerial photography 2005, 2009, 2013, 2021, 2022

End of official list entry

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