Burton Manor And Attached Orangery (College Of Further Education)

Burton Manor is a country house with attached orangery, now used as a college of further education, located on the south side of Village Street in Burton Village, Neston.

The house was built around 1805 for Richard Congreve. It was substantially remodelled in 1904 by Sir Charles Nicholson for Henry Neville Gladstone, son of the Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. The orangery, dated 1910 on its rainwater head, was designed by Arthur Beresford Pite. The extensive grounds feature a formal garden by T.H. Mawson.

The building is constructed of ashlar and hammer-dressed red sandstone with a hipped and sprocketed roof of green slates, topped with tall ornate stacks of stone and brick. It is arranged on a quadrangular plan.

The entrance front comprises five bays. The centrepiece features a 2-storey open-pedimented bay, flanked by two 3-storey bays to the left and two 2-storey bays to the right. The bays are articulated by giant pilasters supporting an eaves frieze beneath wide modillioned eaves. The entrance itself is a rusticated semicircular arched porch in the Gibbs style, flanked by narrow lights containing leaded glass roundels. The doors are multi-glazed teak. Above is a pulvinated transom panel filled with fruit and foliage, surmounted by a fanlight of small leaded glass roundels behind a wrought iron radial grille of stylised leaves within a margin of metal roundels. The windows are sashes with glazing bars, longer on the ground floor to light the public rooms and shorter on the left where they accommodate the third storey. The gabled pediment encloses heraldic arms and the inscription "EIDE ET VIRTUTE" in its tympanum.

The right return is a 2-storey front of five unequal bays with a projecting left end bay and irregular fenestration. The left end bay contains tripartite sash windows at both levels, while centre bays have sash windows with louvre shutters at first floor level. The right end bay has a ground floor oculus and a blank first floor.

The garden front is a 2-storey, 5-bay elevation with a single-storey orangery to the right, which masks the end of the service wing. A full-height 3-window canted bay projects at the left end, with a similar 2-window square bay at the right. The three centre bays contain tripartite sashes at ground floor and paired sashes above. The first floor windows have louvred shutters. The orangery features nine tall sash windows with pivoting top lights arranged in triplets, each with centre lights flanked by Ionic half columns standing on a moulded plinth band. One triplet is repeated in the left return with French doors in the centre. The right return has a high-level Diocletian window. The whole is surmounted by a moulded cornice and plain parapet.

The service wing is set back from both the entrance and garden fronts and comprises two and three-storey sections with single-storey additions.

The interior is exceptionally detailed. The ground floor entrance hall features an oak block floor, 6-panel porch doors of walnut veneer, and 8-panel hardwood doors to the rooms with panelled linings. A line of three centre piers supports semicircular arches with vine-motif archivolts. Dentil cornices frame wide coved and panelled ceilings with central bay leaf decoration.

The staircase hall has a vaulted ceiling with garland decoration to the semicircular panels over doors.

The former Billiard Room, now Library, has an oak block floor, a raised dais, and a plain sandstone mantel between two Tuscan columns with high bases. The panelled ceiling is based on vines with garlands of foliage and flowers.

The former library, now Film Room, has a red, green and white mantel with dentils, bead and reel, and beads with bay leaf garland motif to the cornice.

The studio features a dentil cornice beneath a panelled ceiling with bay leaf garland decoration.

The former drawing room, now Congreve Room, contains a marble mantel with Jacobean fluted surround, pilasters with foliate motif and acanthus caps, lozenge motif to the fascia, and bead and reel decoration to the shelf edge. The room has a garland wall frieze, dentil cornice, reeded and ogee ceiling cornice, and a panelled ceiling with an ellipse in the bay containing diamond panels to light fittings based on stylised roses. Door openings are flanked by plaster pilasters with flower, leaf and ribbon motifs to panels, acanthus caps, garland frieze and dentil bead and reel cornice.

The former music room, now Gladstone Room, has an oak strip floor and an 8-panel door. The marble mantel features a diamond motif fascia with dentil-edged shelf, flanked by Ionic edge-rebated marble pilasters supporting a frieze of scrolls, shields and acanthus leaves. The central panel contains vine decoration and a roundel with deer and tree embroidery. A gallery with a central pier flanked by a solid parapet featuring a triple garland motif faces a segment-headed multi-glazed borrowed light to the staircase. The ceiling is cross-vaulted with floral rib decoration.

The former dining room, now lounge, has walls framed into tall vertical panels above a panelled dado, with some dividing pilasters paired and featuring dentilled floral caps. A marble mantel with bead and reel and egg and dart surround is flanked by panel pilasters with pear and pomegranate motifs. Pairs of 4-panel walnut doors flank the fireplace. The frieze features small garlands and a small egg and dart crown mould, with the dentil ceiling cornice framing an elliptical bay leaf garland.

The Fountain Court has a chequered floor of black and white marble tiles. Windows on three sides are large radial-glazed round-headed sashes, with window arches and matching loggia arches formed of roof tiles on edge with stone keyblocks. First floor windows are generally casements with glazing bars, but a large Palladian window over the loggia serves the staircase.

The staircase features panelled newels and an openwork balustrade based on looped and other strapwork designs incorporating the initials MEG and dated 1904. The upper quarter space landing has a Venetian window, with galleries to the east, south and west. The first floor ceiling features four intersecting coves with a quatrefoil centre motif based on grapes and stylised leaves.

At first floor, The Lichfield Room has a 6-panel door and a plain ceiling cornice with a large elliptical panel to the ceiling.

The meeting room retains evidence of the early 19th-century house. Its marble mantel fire grate has an eared architrave and festoons to the shelf fascia based on vines. The ceiling is divided into four by plastered beams with simple cornices.