Knutsford Library

Knutsford Library is a public library built in 1904, with an extension added in the late 20th century and some minor alterations. The architect was Alfred Darbyshire from Manchester, and the project was funded by the Carnegie Trust. The building is constructed of red brick laid in English garden wall bond, featuring buff terracotta dressings and detailing, and has a Welsh slate roof.

The library has an irregular L-shaped plan, consisting of two main ranges with an entrance bay that fills the space between them. The front elevation features a tall, wide gable on the left with a prominent oriel window supported by a low, wide pier that includes two small single light windows. The oriel itself has four lights, is mullioned and transomed, and rises from a moulded terracotta base. Above it, a joggled flat lintel bears the inscription 'PUBLIC FREE LIBRARY'. The gable has wide terracotta bands at the base of the oriel and at the window transom levels, extending across its full width. It is topped with decorative copings and an elaborate apex panel that includes a niche and a ball finial.

To the right of the gable is a low entrance range with a flat roof, featuring a wide, four-centred arched doorway beneath an elaborately decorated doorhead. This doorhead includes corbelled flanking shafts, ball finials, and a central panel with enrichments and the date 1904. Flanking the doorway are three single light windows on a continuous cill mould, with a lintel band made of linked joggled heads above the openings. Further to the right, set back, is a single bay with a pyramidal roof.

Inside, the main range serves as the adult library, which is a single open space that extends to the roof. The roof structure consists of double purlins supported by two arch-braced hammer beam roof trusses, which have small king posts at collar level and metal tie rods linking the hammer beams. The lower rear range, which forms the children's library, has a ceiling with a wide cornice band and features two-light mullioned and transomed windows.