Description

NESTON

SJ37NW BIRKENHEAD ROAD, Willaston
794-1/2/110 (West side)
The Lydiate

GV II

Mansion, now Medical Centre. 1857; C20 alterations. Built for
Duncan Graham. Yellow brick in Flemish bond with ashlar
dressings; slate roof with timber bracketed eaves, rooflights
and stone corniced brick stacks.
EXTERIOR: entrance front: 2-storey 3-bay front, with giant
sunk-panel pilasters at outer angles. Centre bay projects as a
3-stage square tower, each stage pilastered, with pyramidal
roof. Ground floor has keyed round-arched doorway with 2-leaf
moulded panel doors and plain fanlight. Moulded cornice
carried on console brackets supports first floor balcony
balustrade to 2/2 sashes in moulded keyed surround with
cornice hood. Flanking pilasters support wide modillion
cornice. Tower upper stage has coupled pilasters with moulded
cornices flanking two round-arched openings, now glazed, with
blind balustrading beneath moulded sills. Tower flanked on
ground floor by square bays with moulded cornices and
balustraded parapets. Each has three 1/1 sashes with
channelled lintels and defaced mask keyblocks. First floor
windows are tripartite 1/1 sashes in moulded surrounds with
moulded cornices forming segmental pediment over centre light.
Garden front: 2 storeys and attics; 4 unequal bays. Centre
left and right end bays are open-pedimented cross-gables,
right end bay flanked by giant sunk-panel pilasters. Garden
entrance at right of centre is in fully glazed screen recessed
behind Tuscan diastyle in antis screen with segmental centre
arch. Pierced parapet forms balcony balustrade to first floor
window above: window is a 2/2 sash in architrave with carved
keyblock and segmental pediment. On ground floor, cross-gabled
bays have tripartite windows in moulded surrounds with
balustraded parapets over moulded cornices projecting in
centre as balconies on carved brackets. First-floor window in
left of centre bay is tripartite as on entrance front; in
right end bay, pedimented 2/2 sash as over garden entrance. In
each gable is a round-headed sash window beneath keyed
semicircular moulded arch. Left end bay has plain sashes on
both floors, the lower one with a stone apron and a blind
balustrade. There is one gabled dormer over entrance.
Balustrading throughout is pierced by keyed roundels.
INTERIOR: principal room has mantel of fretwork with eaves
architraves untraditional mouldings but high quality. Ceiling
with roundels and squares based on flowers with similar
cornice. Oak Room has chimney piece of Flemish strapwork in
Jacobean style with flanking Jacobean pilasters, semicircular
headed panels. Jacobean frieze. 4-panel high panelling to
walls and ogee moulded plate rail.
Sitting room: C18 style cast-iron grate with mantel with eaved
architrave, festoon frieze and beading.
Entrance hall: 2-panel high oak panelling with Jacobean fluted
frieze, 4-panel pitch pine bolection moulded doors with wide
architraves. Open newel staircase with bullnosed step, ramped
handrail, large square newels and turned balusters.

Listing NGR: SJ3188778210

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26667281

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)