Webb Orphanage Now Webb House.

Webb Orphanage, now Webb House

This building was constructed in 1909 as an orphanage, as confirmed by the date on the porch foundation stone. It was designed by architect John Brooke of Manchester and built for a trust established under the will of Francis William Webb, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway Company. The building now serves as the British Rail Board Operations Training Centre.

The structure is built from Accrington red brick with stone dressing and a slate roof. It is two storeys high with an attic that runs across only the five centre bays. The facade comprises 23 bays arranged in the pattern 1-8-5-8-1, with the end and centre bays projecting forward. The plan follows a back-to-back "E" shape.

The entrance is dominated by a single-storey Tuscan Distyle in Antis porch with a flat roof, flanked by paired bay windows. The central gabled projection features a first-floor sash window with moulded stone architraves, a large keystone, and an open segmental pediment. This is flanked by pairs of similar sashes with head cornices. The two end bays project slightly and have solid stone above window head level, which frames a raised panel inscribed with the words "Webb Orphanage". The gable is a stone open pediment with a single keyed oculus and festoons in the brick-filled tympanum.

The eight-bay wings that flank the entrance porch are set back eight yards. These feature recessed sashes with plain lower lights and glazing bars above, positioned on a sill band at ground floor with a moulded string above, all topped by wedge arches. The soffit ovolo mould and ogee-moulded gutter intersect with the stone cornice moulds from the end gables. The projecting bays have half-brick projecting corner pilasters with alternate bands of brick and stone. These flank single-storey canted stone bay windows with sashes, moulded cornices and flat roofs, with pairs of sashes at first floor level. The brick-filled stone gable pediments each contain a plain central cartouche. A square timber clock turret with four clock faces and a cupola sits astride the ridge of the central section. High-standing brick ridges and lateral chimneys with stone caps complete the external detailing.

Internally, the entrance comprises a pair of five-panel doors flanked by semicircular-headed niches beneath a three-light overlight with glazing bars. A small internal porch precedes a vestibule screen consisting of a pair of half-glazed doors with a pulvinated lock rail, flanked by narrow wing lights and surmounted by a three-light overlight with glazing bars.

The panelled entrance hall has two-high panelling and features projecting dado and frieze rails. Two five-panelled doors with pulvinated lock rails are positioned on each side. To the rear is a long panelled public room, similarly detailed with moulded dado and frieze rails on plastered walls and a pair of half-glazed doors with wing lights but without an overlight. Wings to the left and right of the entrance hall have matching five-panel doors and moulded dado and frieze rails.

Stone staircases with square metal balusters incorporating scroll features and metal-moulded handrails serve the building. A secondary timber staircase provides access to the attic. Many original panelled doors survive throughout.

The rear elevations and supporting buildings are consistent with the main structure, and the fenestration remains unaltered.