Thelwall Heys

Thelwall Heys is a substantial Gothic Revival house built in 1864 to designs by the eminent architect Alfred Waterhouse for William J. Long. The property, which originally incorporated offices within the main building, stands on elevated ground above the Bridgewater Canal and includes a range of associated outbuildings arranged around a cobbled yard.

Materials and Construction

The house is constructed of red-brown brick laid in Flemish bond, enlivened with yellow and blue brick banding and decoration. Architectural dressings are of ashlar red sandstone. Steeply pitched roofs are covered in slate, and windows are timber sashes throughout the original fabric.

Layout and Setting

The main house has an L-shaped plan, with the principal range running north-west to south-east and a lower range extending from the north-east corner. A single-storey service court adjoins the main house to the north-west. To the north-east stand the stables and coach house (the latter partially converted to form a dwelling now known as Laundry Cottage) fronting onto a cobbled yard. These outbuildings connect to a garden wall that extends north-eastwards before turning south-eastwards. Former greenhouses are built against the south-east face of this wall, and a small bothy sits within what was once a walled garden.

The House: Exterior

The house rises two storeys with attics. The front (north-east) elevation has three bays, with gables to left and right. The left bay is blind, distinguished by a central projecting tapered chimney breast that incorporates an 1864 datestone with decorative intertwined numerals. The chimney stack is truncated.

The entrance occupies the centre bay within a two-storey porch (now altered). Above the doorway is a round stone bearing an intertwined 'WL' monogram for William Long. The entrance itself has a pointed arched stone surround and a vertically-planked door fitted with elaborate strap hinges, knocker and escutcheon. Notably, the first-floor banding does not continue across the porch face, which has cornice stones to the angles above the ground storey. At first-floor level the porch has a two-light window and shallow parapet. To the right of the porch is a tall three-light mullion and transom stair window with leaded glazing, positioned above a leaded-glazed, lead-roofed lean-to timber-framed loggia. Above this composition sits a four-light roof dormer.

The right-hand gabled wing projects forward and features a canted oriel on its inner face overlooking the loggia. The gable itself is blind but decorated with polychrome brickwork and banding, and has a canted angle below a stone dragon-post at first-floor level. The lower office range partly obscures the remainder of this wing. This office range has hipped roofs with a cogged eaves band, and a shallow, stepped two-storey central bay window beneath a hipped gablet. It also has a canted left angle below a dragon-post. At the right edge is the side of a single-storey rear outshut to this range, whilst set further back to the right stands the blind east wall of the service outbuildings.

The south-east end has a gabled bay at the left containing a projecting chimney breast flanked by windows; this is partially obscured by the conservatory. The right-hand bay has a square bay window at ground-floor level. Set back to the right is the front of the office range, with a central two-storey gabled bay window fitted with paired sash windows. The gable apex has blind twin arches with polychrome brick decoration.

The south-west garden front is distinguished by a canted two-storey bay window at its centre, topped by a polygonal pitched roof with an iron finial. At the right-hand end is a narrow two-storey gabled bay window featuring a polychrome blind arch, sprocketed eaves, kneelers, cogging and a quatrefoil vent. Between these features is a narrow doorway reached by stone steps and sheltered by a lean-to roof. Decorative coloured brick bands run at window head and sill levels, with diaper-work decoration filling the space between the bands at first-floor level. The long left-hand end has stacked paired single-light windows adjacent to the canted bay.

The north-west end façade presents a tall gable at the right with decoration similar to the garden gable, a small gabled dormer to the principal roof, and the hipped end with a gablet to the office range. Between the office range and the gabled wing stands a late 19th-century two-storey service range matching the earlier façades. This has a small gable at the left, three windows per floor, and an arched doorway at the right fitted with a summoning bell. The ground floor of the office range has a hipped single-storey lavatory extension.

The House: Interior

The entrance loggia is reached through a moulded stone archway and has patterned encaustic floor tiling. The loggia, foot-of-stair window and entrance door (all probably early 20th century) feature decorative leaded lights with vertical saddle bars and wrought-iron tridents to the door and window. The stair window and oriel are also leaded. A porter's window at the end of the loggia has a shouldered stone surround and stained glass.

The internal plan-form survives largely unaltered. The pitch-pine dogleg stair (possibly altered at its foot) has carved newels, moulded handrails and, in place of balusters, diagonally-braced intermediate rails. Some principal rooms retain hearths and fire surrounds, and throughout there are deeply-moulded skirtings, architraves and plaster cornices, along with four-panel doors. The first-floor room of the office range (now subdivided) retains exposed braced trusses, and the adjacent oriel window has a window seat. The dining room retains its service passage to the kitchen, a ceiling rose and fireplace. The lavatory extension to the office range has decorative wall-tiling and stained glass. The service wing contains secondary stairs with carved balusters, an early 20th-century service bell indicator box, and linen cupboards. The heating arrangement survives, along with some patterned floor tiling and cast-iron columns from the original conservatory. The cellar is stone-flagged and retains a vaulted probable ice-house with filling chute.

Coach House and Stables (Including Laundry Cottage): Exterior

Facing south-east, the original block is T-shaped with a rear gabled outshot. It is built in English Garden Wall bond brickwork with some banded brick lintels, and has timber windows (PVC to the dwelling portion). The façade is asymmetrical. At its centre is a Tudor-arched recessed entrance with a gableted window (PVC) above. To the left is a second gableted window (PVC) positioned over a modern garage door to the coach house (with a pent canopy), and to the right is a 12-pane stable casement window with an arched pitching hole above. There are end stacks (truncated at the right) and a full-height off-centre ridge stack. At the left is a single-storey lean-to extension of late 19th-century date with a PVC window.

The entrance recess contains a sash window and door to a tack room ahead (fitted with a wall-mounted fire ladder and pump-box). In the left return is a door to the coach house, and in the right return a door to the stables with a transom light. Attached at the right is a square two-storey late 19th-century loosebox with a pyramidal roof and finial (damaged at the time of inspection). Its ground floor is obscured by a garden building (currently used as garage or store) with a projecting early 20th-century canopy, but its first floor has a segmental 16-pane casement. The inner return facing the yard has two 16-pane casements and a plank door with transom.

The south-west side return has an offset chimney breast to the left (with full-height stack) and a gable window (PVC). The lean-to extension returns along the rear under a catslide roof, with a full-height stack at the original eaves. The central outshot is gabled with PVC windows. To the left, the wall continues at single-storey height with a cogged band and a banded doorway, concealing a shallow roof with skylight. The wall above this roof is recessed. At the left is a pitching door above a single-storey extension of around 1900. The blind wall of the two-storey loosebox is visible, set back at the left.

The north-east wall has a mucking-out window and corbelled chimney breast. The loosebox has a first-floor door, possibly for a pigeon loft.

Coach House and Stables: Interior

The coach house retains a stone-setted floor, the tack room is stone-flagged, and the stables and loosebox have stone setts or tiles. The stables retain swept cast-iron and timber stall dividers and timber feed chutes from the loft, with one manger bracket. The interior of the occupied dwelling (Laundry Cottage) is not thought to contain any features of interest.

Subsidiary Items

To the north-west of the house is an early 20th-century range of single-storey service outbuildings, one of which retains stone worktops, a quarry-tile floor and a sliding timber wall vent.

The yard in front of the coach house block is surfaced with river cobbles and stone setts, with some textured bricks.

The mid-19th-century garden walls have stone copings and shallow buttresses to their outer faces. Against the south-east face are the low brick walls with stone copings of the former glasshouses. Their tiled and patterned floors, decorative cast-iron floor gratings and some heating pipework also survive.

The early 20th-century gardener's bothy has wainscotting and a corner fireplace.