Gorton House

Gorton House is a late 18th-century house built around the 1780s, constructed in mellow red brick with brick and sandstone dressings. The front and side elevations are built in Flemish bond, while the rear uses irregular English garden wall bond. The building rises through two storeys plus basement and attic, covered by a two-span slate roof. A small altered early to mid-19th-century worker's cottage abuts the rear left corner but is not considered to be of special interest.

The house has a quadruple pile plan formed of two parallel double pile wings. The ground floor features a central hallway with the main staircase positioned to the rear left of the front wing, and service rooms arranged at the rear.

Exterior

The building features a mixture of late 18th-century multipaned sashes and mid to late 19th-century replacement one-over-one sashes with flat arched heads and stone sills, along with some casement windows. Substantial ridge stacks rise from the roof.

The front (south) elevation presents a symmetrical three-bay façade with a painted dentil eaves cornice. The main entrance occupies the ground floor centre, consisting of a raised doorway with a pedimented Ionic doorcase and plain fanlight. The three-panel door has a glazed upper panel and is reached by a short stone stair flight. Above the entrance sits a one-over-one sash window with an eared and shouldered architrave and cornice. Full-height canted bays capped by shallow hipped roofs flank the central entrance on either side.

The side elevations have bracketed eaves and paired gables with a central valley. Each gable contains a small eyelet window at the apex. The left (west) side elevation features a blind window to the far left of the first floor (a ground floor blind window is now obscured by the later cottage annex), with a six-over-six sash window to the right and a four-over-four sash below on the ground floor. To the right are paired sash windows (probably mid-19th century) on both floors with carved shaped timber mullions: four-over-four sashes on the ground floor and two-over-two sashes on the first floor, set within a shared segmental arched head. The right gable has a raised doorway on the ground floor left with a doorcase (door now replaced) incorporating slender fluted Doric-style engaged columns and a shallow flat hood above with shallow mutules to the underside, accessed by a short stone stair, with basement access below. Blind windows occupy the far right of the gable on each floor.

The right (east) side elevation has two blind windows on each floor of the left gable, with a large two-storey arched recess to the right containing one-over-one sash windows on each floor. Large twelve-light casement windows with cambered heads occupy each floor to the right of the recess. A six-light window sits at ground floor centre of the right gable. A short section of later red brick garden wall projects out from the right edge at right angles.

The rear (north) elevation extends across six bays with segmental arched and cambered heads to windows and doors. From left to right on the ground floor: a six-light casement window at the far left, followed by a ledged and braced door with a six-over-six sash window on the first floor above, then an eight-over-eight sash window. The main rear entrance sits right of centre with a wide ledged and braced door with boarded-up overlight. Above this entrance is a large two-light window with margin lights incorporating stained glass star motifs, which lights the rear first floor hall, with a relieving arch above. An altered window opening at the far right of the ground floor has a replaced sill and lintel, with a small two-over-two sash window and larger window on the first floor above. A small later stack serves a later inserted stove or boiler in the rear kitchen.

Interior

The interior preserves original late 18th-century features alongside later mid-19th-century additions throughout. Timber floorboards cover the floors. Doors include six-panel examples with fielded panels and four-panel doors. 18th-century moulded door architraves survive, some with deep reveals. Plain and decorative moulded cornicing appears throughout, along with elaborate mid-19th-century radiator boxes.

A long, wide entrance hall occupies the ground floor centre front, featuring dentil cornice, deep moulded skirting, and moulded dado rail (the floor is hidden by later carpet), with rooms opening off to each side. The front left ground-floor room has dentil cornice, picture rail, and a replaced mid to late 20th-century fireplace. The front right ground-floor room was not accessible during recording.

A wide moulded arched opening with later infill and inserted door to the rear left of the entrance hall leads into the main stair hall with diamond-patterned stone floor. The wide late 18th-century timber open-well stair features slender turned balusters and a wreathed and ramped handrail. The staircase is top-lit by a dome incorporating painted glass. A six-panel door to the rear of the stair hall leads to a small vestibule and the west side entrance.

A door to the rear of the entrance hall originally led to rooms at the rear left of the ground floor and the rear entrance hall, but a mid-20th-century partition wall is now inserted behind. A door to the rear right of the entrance hall leads into a room with plain moulded cornicing (with a later partition wall to the south side). A door in the north wall leads into two large rear kitchens and a small store. The kitchens retain stone flag floors and large timber fireplace surrounds (the one in the back kitchen/scullery has a cast-iron grate). The back kitchen/scullery contains a shallow stone sink on brick supports and a later inserted boiler or stove. A blocked-up doorway in the west wall originally led into the rear entrance hall.

The rear entrance vestibule has a partly glazed screen and four-panel door with glazed upper panels, leading into the rear hallway. The rear hallway has a six-panel door in the south wall leading to the stone basement stair, and an arched opening in the west wall leads to the rear stair and two rooms. Both rooms retain chimneybreasts but the fireplaces have been removed; one has shallow ceiling moulding. The narrow rear timber dog-leg stair has plain newel posts, closed string, and substantial turned vase balusters. This staircase is probably late 17th or early 18th century and appears to be re-used from elsewhere.

The main first floor landing in the front wing has dentil cornice with two doors to the south and east. The former door accesses the front left room with built-in cupboards, plain moulded cornicing with narrow dentil band, and a replaced mid to late 20th-century fireplace. The latter door accesses an inner landing. The room at first floor centre front has a late 18th-century timber fire surround with later tiled inserts. The front right room (now partitioned to create a bathroom) has plain moulded cornicing, a mid-19th-century fireplace, and a built-in cupboard. A mid-20th-century partition wall is inserted to the north side of the inner landing.

Behind this is the rear first floor hallway with a flat arch with decorative consoles. Two rooms occupy the south end: the room to the west side has a moulded 18th-century fire surround, while the fireplace in the room to the east side is damaged. Arched openings on each side at the north end of the hallway lead to the rear stair and attic stair and two further rooms. The room to the east side has a late 18th-century fire surround and hob grate. A plain narrow timber dog-leg attic stair occupies the rear right.

Extensive attics cover the whole building, with plain door architraves and some plank and batten doors. Most floorboards have been removed. King post roof trusses are visible, and dormer windows in the inner roof planes overlook the central roof valley.

The basement has a stone flag floor (some flags removed) and plank and batten doors (one damaged). A part brick-vaulted corridor runs the full width of the building east-west, lined with a series of small arched storage recesses. A small twelve-light window occupies the east end, and a small room at the west end has an external ledged and braced door and a later inserted wall to the north side creating a small meter room. A larder with stone and brick shelving sits at the front centre. A large vaulted room at the front left has a six-light window in the west wall, stone and brick shelves, and small square storage recesses in the south wall.

History

The exact construction date of Gorton House is unknown but is believed to be the late 1780s. It does not appear on Yates' map of Lancashire of 1786 but is marked on Greenwood's map of 1818. The house is believed to have been built for Robert Grimshaw, a local mill owner who was living in the house in 1790. Grimshaw held a patent right with Reverend Dr. Cartwright and was the first person to introduce power looms to Manchester at Knott Mill. This introduction was brief as the mill was destroyed by arsonists in 1790.

In the early 19th century, Gorton House was owned by Joseph Howard and leased to various tenants who used outbuildings as a hat manufactory. In the 1820s, land to the north of the house was purchased by a water company to construct reservoirs. Ownership of the reservoirs passed to Manchester City Council in 1851, and in 1874 they acquired further land to the south, which included Gorton House.

In the early 1840s, Gorton House was used as a school for young ladies. In 1851 it was occupied by the Marion Place School for the sons of gentlemen, which provided boarding accommodation. By 1864 the house was being used as a residence by Edward Pinder, a local steel manufacturer, who operated a steelworks near the house until around 1877. In the late 19th to early 20th century, the house was lived in by Thomas Parker, chief mechanical engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway.

In 1918 the land surrounding the house (excluding the immediate front and rear gardens) was transformed into a public park known as Debdale Park.

Gorton House is designated at Grade II as a good example of a late 18th-century polite country house built for a successful industrialist, reflecting the advent of industrialisation in Manchester and the desire of the wealthiest citizens to move away from inner-city living. It possesses a finely detailed exterior, including an elegant late 18th-century front elevation with shallow full-height polygonal bays, Ionic doorcase, and dentil eaves. Despite some later alteration, the building is well-preserved both externally and internally and retains its original internal arrangements. It retains high quality late 18th-century interior features, including an elegant top-lit open-well stair, moulded door architraves, six-panel doors with fielded panels, some fireplaces, cornicing, and stone floors, as well as some mid-19th-century features. The original spatial division between family and service spaces remains clearly readable.