Withnell Fold Hall

Withnell Fold Hall is a large house, dating to 1898-99 and built for T.L. Park. It has been adapted for use as an old people’s home. The house is constructed primarily of Accrington brick with sandstone dressings, and has a red-tiled roof, with some applied half-timbering. The plan is irregular, with a principal front of approximately five bays. The design is in an eclectic vernacular revival style, incorporating some baroque details.

The architectural focus is a three-storey porch, designed as an embattled tower gatehouse, with a stair turret at the right corner, culminating in a domed turret. The porch has an elaborately moulded round-arched outer doorway, a canted oriel above, a three-light mullioned window on the second floor, and an embattled stone parapet. The portion to the left covers the gable end of a recessed wing, and is two storeys high, with the ridge of the roof reaching the full height of the tower. A diagonal wing, with a jettied upper floor of decorative half-timbering, is situated at the left corner. A corbelled turret breaks through the roof into a small octagonal lantern with a domed copper roof, set in the re-entrant angle. A small buttress to an angle on the ground floor has a stone coping with a lettered panel reading "18 T.L.P. 98".

To the right of the tower, a two-bay range features a prominent five-sided bay and a mullion-and-transom window on the ground floor. The first floor has two mullioned windows with round-headed lights, and there are two jettied half-timbered gables with wooden casements on brackets. A set-back wing extends from this end, incorporating a corbelled turret in the angle, large mullion-and-transom windows, and a south gable with a jettied tile-hung upper floor. Queen Anne style wooden windows are also present. A small, single-storey extension, set back at the north end and in a baroque style, appears to have been a billiard room. Numerous tall clustered chimneys are a notable feature. The interior follows a similar style to the exterior.