Tirley Garth And Entrance Courtyard Walls

Tirley Garth and entrance courtyard walls

Large house, now a training centre, built between 1906 and circa 1914 by architect C E Mallows. It was commissioned first for Mr Lees-Smith and then for Bruno Mond, both of Brunner Mond, and completed from 1912 for R A Prestwich of Burberrys. The building is constructed of pebble-dashed brick with buff sandstone dressings and a York stone-slate roof, featuring tall pebble-dashed chimneys. It is designed in a Neo-Vernacular style with Elizabethan flavour and follows a courtyard plan.

The south garden front is symmetrical with 3 storeys and 5 bays. It has a rough stone plinth, flush quoins, and copings on the 5 triangular gables. The central bay projects boldly in a semi-circular form through 2 storeys and contains an 11-light mullioned and triple-transomed window serving the great hall. Above this is a 5-light mullioned window and a blocked oval light in the gable. These are flanked by canted projections carrying pairs of tall diamond stacks. The end bays have canted 2-storey projections with mullioned and transomed windows and 4-light mullioned windows above. The 2nd bay features a recessed porch behind a screen of 2 fluted octagonal columns carrying a corbel table, with a recessed mullioned and twin-transomed window with moulded segmental head and a 5-light mullioned window above. The 4th bay is similar except for a window in place of the entrance.

The west entrance front is 2 and 3 storeys with 8 bays. The central entrance is set under a broad moulded segmental arch, approached by 3 steps and containing a door with small-pane glazing. A 5-light window with label mould sits above. On either side are 2-storey canted projections with similar windows. To the right in the 6th bay is a tall flush staircase tower with a flat top, featuring 5-light mullioned and transomed windows and arrow slits in a slightly taller left-hand portion. A 3-storey section occupies the right end, while the left end bay is a garage with wooden doors stepping forward under a hipped roof.

The east front is 2 and 3 storeys with 9 bays. The main part projects forward under a steep roof and carries lines of mullioned and mullioned and transomed windows. A segmental-headed window appears in a hipped half-dormer, and there are 3 hipped dormers with stone-slate hanging. The right end 2 bays step forward under gables with recent wooden windows.

The courtyard is enclosed on all 4 sides by a cloister arcade of 3 segmental moulded arches per side, the central one wider than the others, with the lower wall broken by a shallow flight of segmental steps. At the courtyard centre is a sunken circular pool with a lead statue at its middle. The cloister carries a balcony with a coped parapet except on the 2-storey, 5-gabled south side. The north side has a similar partly glazed arcade behind. Good lead rainwater heads are throughout.

Interior: Entry is from the cloister into the main south range. This contains a passage along each floor with rooms to one side. The ground floor has a small square entrance hall under a plaster dome with stone niches. To the right is an open well oak staircase with turned balusters and square newels serving as piers, with the stairwell wainscotted throughout. To the left is a passage with stone arches and wainscotting between. The sitting room on the right hand has white painted bolection-moulded and fielded panelling with a recessed fireplace flanked by pairs of fluted pilasters and an early-to-mid 18th-century style ceiling. At the centre is the great hall, open to 2 storeys. A pair of large rectangular trusses with added angle braces carry the flat ceiling. A tall moulded segmental arch opens to the bay window. Similar smaller arches serve the inglenook fireplace and openings on either side. A gallery on 3 sides features network turned balusters, strapwork details to panels and newels. Over the fireplace it is carried on stone corbels, one being an atlante figure; opposite it is carried on wooden piers forming a dais canopy. A hidden stair from the bay provides access to the gallery. The Blue Room, a former study, has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, plank and muntin panelling, and a simple oak chimney breast. The left end room, formerly the dining room, has a bolection-moulded polished marble fireplace.

At first floor, the passage is timber-framed with a barrel vault on heavy wooden trusses and wood-mullioned windows to the great hall. Small anterooms at each end give access to main bedrooms and dressing rooms with pegged oak architraves and 2-panelled oak doors and simple fittings. The top flight of stairs includes a minor stone staircase with a small stone balcony leading to the roof. The top floor passage has pairs of cupboards alternating with dormer windows and a line of oak doors opposite. Access to rooms in other ranges is also from passages.

The former billiard room at the north-west corner has a plaster dome and bolection-moulded panelling with panelled recesses to the windows.

The listing includes the pebble-dashed walls and gatepiers with ball finials around the entrance courtyard, the adjoining entrance to the garage, and its stone revetment wall to the rear of the house.