Watermillock, Astley Bridge, Bolton

Entry Name: Watermillock

Listing Date: 4 August 1989

Grade: II

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1387993

English Heritage Legacy ID: 475989

Location: Bolton, BL1

County: Bolton

Electoral Ward/Division: Astley Bridge

Built-Up Area: Bolton

Traditional County: Lancashire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Greater Manchester

Church of England Parish: Astley Bridge St Paul

Church of England Diocese: Manchester

Description

SD71SW
797-1/2/77
04/08/89

BOLTON
CROMPTON WAY(North side (off)Watermillock

GII
Gentleman's country house,now public house and restaurant.1880-6.Designed by JJ Bradshaw and John Gass of Bolton and Manchester for Herbert and Thomas Thwaites(successive heads of Eden and Thwaites,bleachers);decoration and furnishings by Messrs.Goodall and Co.of Manchester.Yorkshire coursed rubble and York stone dressings;Welsh slate roof.EXTERIOR AND PLAN:entrance front faces south-east,porch gives on to large hall with open Gothic arcade of three bays standing forward of Imperial stair top lit by large lantern;hall flanked by dining room to right with smoking room to rear,and drawing room to left with breakfast room to rear.Corridor to rear of hall leads via a garden entrance vestibule to large and elaborate billiards room that stands almost detached from the house to the north-west.Services to north-east with a rear single-storey range including stables,outbuildings and coachman's cottage.All elevations asymmetrical and varied.Two storeys with attic.The house is approached from the south-west and the south-west and entrance fronts are the most imaginatively treated.Tudor Gothic style,the windows all flat-headed with transoms containing plate glass.On the entrance front,three wings,that to the left hipped with two-light dormer and four-light window to each floor; two paired gables to right each with a large window;off-centre porch with offset buttresses,parapet with griffins as corner pinnacles and large pointed arched entrance,three-light windows above.Storey canted one:three:one bay to right with parapet.South-west(left)front,three wings similarly disposed to entrance front,hipped to left,that to the centre with storey canted bay and pointed window to gable wall;the right bay is dominated by massive external stack with curved sides and parapet below shaped shaft,single light windows to each side.To the extreme left,standing well forward and linked to the house by a low corridor containing garden entrance,the single-storey billiards room under hipped roof with glazed lantern and very tall ridge stack;gabled centre projection,two and three-light windows.North-east front,asymmetrical with one large external stack to dining room,gabled wing and another projection under catslide;one and two-light windows.To the rear(and parallel to billiards room)picturesque single storey service range under hipped roof with double gable over tall two-light windows to centre;tall ridge stacks throughout.INTERIOR:well preserved hall with arched recess and pointed arched partition with clustered marble shafts at foot of Imperial stairs with oak turned balusters and carved panels and knotchboard. Similar arcaded partition to landing;lantern with coving and ornamental leaded glazing.Most ground-floor rooms contain good features:notable are the fireplace with de Morgan tiles and wooden surround and overmantle to dining room,the elaborate inglenook to drawing room,the fitted cupboards,coving and overmantle to breakfast room,and the plaster and pitch-pine panelled ceilings;the billiard room(illustrated in Franklin)has a queen post roof supporting a central lantern with decorative painted glazing to side panels,three-bay marbled arched to dais at north end(originally intended to contain an organ),pine dado,coved recess and Jacobethan fire surround-very elaborate but typical of a well-appointed gentleman's house of this period.(Franklin J:The Gentleman's Country House and the Plan,1835-1914:1981-:57;269;The British Architect:1889-:163;Bolton Journal (Pictorial Bolton Series,CXLII):1887-).

Listing NGR: SD7198911506

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