Description

1317/0/10165 MANCHESTER ROAD
10-DEC-03 Spring Cottage

II
Detached house, latterly hotel and club, empty at the time of inspection (June 2003). Early C19th, remodelled and enlarged late C19th. Thought to have been established by Benjamin Townson, and later extended by the Eckroyd family and later the Moorby family, both textile manufacturers in Nelson. Regularly coursed sandstone, with ashlar sandstone dressings, prominent gable and ridge chimneys with decorative pots, coped gables and a Welsh slate roof covering.

PLAN: Extended U-plan, with later C20th infill to rear.

EXTERIOR: Asymmetrical entrance front to south west, facing landscaped gardens. 2 storeys with attics, 6 bays, with 3 advanced gables forming the dominant features of the elevation. The main entrance is set within the middle gable, (bay 3)with a wide doorway with a moulded surround set below a shallow arch with carved decoration to the spandrels, and a hood mould with sculptured head stops. 3-light chamfer mullioned first floor window with slender attached colonnettes to the mullion faces. Above, a 2-light attic window with arched hoodmould. Gabled end bay to left with inserted or altered doorway, 2, 2-light first floor windows with hood moulds and a pointed lancet to the attic. Set-back bay to right of entrance bay, much obscured by mature foliage, with tall 3-light mullioned window to ground floor, with shallower first floor opening above. Further right, a narrow third gable with steeply-pitched roof. This has a full height 2-light ground floor opening detailed as a shallow bay window with foliage ornamentation as an eaves band, and with traceried heads incorporating quatrefoils to the individual lights.
Above, Tall 3-light window with stepped hood mould, below which is incorporated a carved heraldic ashlar panel. Lancet to gable apex. End bay to right with 3 light ground floor window with traceried heads, and 3-light first floor opening, both windows with hood moulds.

Return wing to left is a stepped range of 3 components. The 2 bay return to the front elevation is of 2 storeys and attics, with a gable to the left, and a crenellated canted bay to the right. 2 and 3-light windows with hood moulds are set within rendered masonry walling. Further left, a single 2 storey bay, and the a set-back 2 storey, 2-bay section with a canted bay window with a crested parapet below 2, 3-light mullion and transom windows.

Right return with projecting chimney breast to gable, and set-back 2 storeyed range of 3 bays, with 2 and 3 light windows below hood moulds and a canted bay window with slated roof and transomed lights. To the left of this, a 3-light window above a cellar entrance, and a doorway with double-arched overlight.

INTERIOR: Not inspected, but known to retain original fixtures and fittings including panelled and glazed entrance doors, glazed vestibule screen with arch-headed lights, moulded plaster cornices and decoration to entrance hall, and hall fireplace with surround.

HISTORY: The house is closely associated with the development of the textile industry which shaped the community of Nelson. It was the home of 2 of the most influential local entrepreneurial families, the Eckroyds and the Moorbys, the latter being the owners of nearby Spring Bank mill, which may have derived its name from the house. It is thought to be the only mill owners house to survive in Nelson.

A mid-late C19th detached villa, the home of successive mill owners, and developed at the height of Nelson's industrial prosperity as a textile manufacturing community. It is a substantial and finely detailed example of late C19th domestic architecture of the scale associated with the owners of manufacturing and commercial enterprises, and, with its extensive grounds, set amongst terraced workers housing, and sited close to the textile factories which line the Leeds Liverpool canal in Nelson, it is a significant and well-preserved component of a notable industrial landscape.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670144

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014