The Cuckoo'S Nest

THE CUCKOO'S NEST, PULFORD

A railway terminus and repair yard complex designed by the architect John Douglas of Chester for the Duke of Westminster. The complex comprises a superintendent's house to the north, a timber-working range, and a barn, smithy and workshop range adjoining to the south, with a further office range and attached walls adjoining to the east.

The superintendent's house is built in red brick to the ground floor with brick quoins to the upper stage and pebble-dash with some decorative timber framing. It has a plain tile roof and brick stacks. The building is of irregular plan, two storeys with two first-floor windows. The central range breaks forwards and is gabled, with decorative timber-framing and a 3-light casement window; other casements serve the upper floor. The ground floor has mullion windows and hoodmoulds. The entrance is to the rear. Tall decorative stacks with cornices and pots feature prominently.

The timber-working range is constructed in pink-red brick with slate roofs, brick stacks and stone copings. It forms an irregular L-shaped complex of a single tall storey and two-storey buildings. The main range has six first-floor openings—a plank door to the left, otherwise 4-light multi-pane straight-headed windows. The ground floor features a series of cambered relieving arches with plank doors and renewed casement windows, with steps up to an upper door at the left. The right gable end displays a 4-light multi-pane window with cambered head to the first floor and a cambered arched opening to the ground floor, with a stack to the rear featuring an oversailing course and pot. A double-pile range abuts to the left, its left part containing a 3-light casement window to the upper stage, an inserted garage door, and a 4-centred-arched opening at right with gothick glazing bars to the head and louvres below. This section has a kneeler to the left and coped gable. The left return has two upper-stage 12-pane windows and a wide truncated end extraction shaft. An abutting range at the right has two first-floor openings with 3-light multi-paned windows with cambered heads; the ground floor features an entrance to the right, a plank door with an elliptical arch, and a tall wide multi-pane window with cambered head. The right return has multi-pane straight-headed windows and a first-floor plank door.

The barn, smithy, workshop and office ranges are built in pink-red brick with barge boarding to the barn, slate roofs and brick stacks, arranged in an irregular U-plan. The barn range is a single tall storey; other sections are one and one-and-a-half storeys, with a 2-storey office range. The barn has a central gable to the street facade with the right part set back. Double plank pitching doors with a multi-pane window over and cambered arch in the gable are visible, with remains of a hoist; the ground floor has a plank door and a further blocked opening. Upper floor breathers and an additional plank door serve the ground floor of the right part. The right return has barge boarding with upper plank doors and lower garage doors. Ranges of buildings abutting at right angles feature plank doors, some with elliptical arches, multi-pane casements where original, stacks to the rear and catslide roofs in part. The office range to the right has a plank door; the first floor has a 3-light multi-pane casement window with cambered arch and a clock set into a raised gable over with a bell turret. The ground floor has a bay window with replacement casement windows. The left return has a multi-pane casement window and a truncated stack to the rear. Flanking walls of pinkish-red brick with stone copings stand approximately 2 metres high.

The interiors were not inspected.

This complex, constructed for the Westminster Estate, represents a rare survival of the scale of operation planned by only the most ambitious and wealthy estates in the late 19th century and undertaken by an architect of national reputation. It was designed to service a private railway line running from the Chester-Wrexham road to the Duke's main residence at Eaton Hall.