Watermillock

Watermillock is a gentleman's country house built between 1880 and 1886, now used as a public house and restaurant. It was designed by JJ Bradshaw and John Gass, architects of Bolton and Manchester, for Herbert and Thomas Thwaites, successive heads of Eden and Thwaites bleachers. The decoration and furnishings were carried out by Messrs Goodall and Co of Manchester.

The house is constructed of Yorkshire coursed rubble with York stone dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is a two-storey building with an attic, approached from the south-west. The entrance front faces south-east and is designed in Tudor Gothic style with all windows flat-headed and containing transoms with plate glass.

The entrance front features three wings: the left wing is hipped with a two-light dormer and four-light windows to each floor; the right side has two paired gables each with a large window. The centrepiece is an off-centre porch with offset buttresses, a parapet with griffins as corner pinnacles, and a large pointed arched entrance with three-light windows above. The right bay has a storey canted projection with a three-to-one bay arrangement and parapet.

The south-west front has three similarly disposed wings to the entrance front. The left wing is hipped, while the centre wing features a storey canted bay and pointed window to the gable wall. The right bay is dominated by a massive external stack with curved sides and a parapet below, with single-light windows on either side. At the far left stands a single-storey billiards room under a hipped roof with glazed lantern and tall ridge stack, linked to the house by a low corridor containing a garden entrance. This room has a gabled centre projection and windows of two to three lights.

The north-east front is asymmetrical, featuring one large external stack to the dining room, a gabled wing, and another projection under catslide, with one to two-light windows. To the rear, running parallel to the billiards room, is a picturesque single-storey service range under a hipped roof with a double gable over tall two-light windows to the centre.

The plan comprises a large hall with an open Gothic arcade of three bays standing forward of an Imperial stair topped by a large lantern. The hall is flanked by a dining room to the right with a smoking room to the rear, and a drawing room to the left with a breakfast room to the rear. A corridor to the rear of the hall leads via a garden entrance vestibule to the large and elaborate billiards room, which stands almost detached from the house to the north-west. Services to the north-east include a rear single-storey range containing stables, outbuildings and a coachman's cottage.

All elevations are asymmetrical and varied, with the entrance and south-west fronts receiving the most imaginative treatment.

The interior is well preserved. The hall features an arched recess and a pointed arched partition with clustered marble shafts at the foot of the Imperial staircase, which has oak turned balusters and carved panels and knotchboard. A similar arcaded partition exists to the landing. The lantern above contains coving and ornamental leaded glazing.

The ground-floor rooms contain notable features throughout. The dining room has a fireplace with de Morgan tiles and a wooden surround and overmantle. The drawing room features an elaborate inglenook. The breakfast room has fitted cupboards, coving and an overmantle. The pitch-pine and plaster panelled ceilings are characteristic throughout. The billiards room contains a queen post roof supporting a central lantern with decorative painted glazing to the side panels, three-bay marbled arch to a dais at the north end (originally intended for an organ), pine dado, a coved recess and a Jacobethan fire surround, making it very elaborate and typical of a well-appointed gentleman's house of the period.