130-132 Portico Lane, Eccleston Park, Prescot

Cottage and attached watchmaker's workshop, dating from around 1800, now converted into two separate dwellings. The building is constructed in brick laid in an irregular English garden wall bond with a slate roof and rises to two storeys.

The cottage is aligned parallel with Portico Lane, with the watchmaker's workshop positioned at its northern end. Two later single-storey projections extend to the rear at right-angles to the main structure. Number 132 Portico Lane, known as Ivy Cottage, occupies the three northern bays of the cottage including the workshop. Number 130 Portico Lane occupies a single southern bay.

The front western elevation presents a four-bay facade comprising three bays of the main cottage and one bay of the workshop. The cottage features a central ground-floor doorway serving as the entrance to Number 132, fitted with a brick wedge lintel and a ledged and braced door with glazed upper panel and timber surround. Above this door is a modern stone bearing a carved inscription reading 'WATCH MAKERS COTTAGE'. The windows in the outer bays have cambered heads and horizontal sliding sash windows; those on the left are multi-paned while those on the right, serving Number 130, have replaced diamond leaded glazing. Ridge stacks rise from both ends of the roof, with the southern stack having been rebuilt. The left-hand bay comprises a two-storey lean-to watchmaker's workshop with an 18-light window at first-floor level and its own ridge stack above. The north return of the workshop, occupying the western half of the cottage's north gable end, incorporates a full-length 36-light window at first floor.

The rear eastern elevation shows two bays to Number 132 with a single-storey projection attached to the left bay and a replaced casement window above at first-floor level. The right bay has a large replaced window with a segmental-arched head at ground floor. The single-storey projection features a modern door and replaced windows on its north side. Set back at the far right of the rear elevation stands the east return of the workshop, which has a 12-light window at first floor and a ground-floor doorway, now without a door. A later single-storey lean-to outdoor toilet is attached to the north gable end in front of the workshop.

The south gable end has been painted and supports a mid-to-late 20th-century porch attached to a rear single-storey projection, which provides the main entrance for Number 130.

Internally, Number 132 contains a narrow entrance hall leading to the rear. A doorway originally connecting to the southern part of the cottage, now Number 130, has been blocked. The dividing wall between the front and rear ground-floor rooms has been removed. The main stair, positioned between the two ground-floor rooms, features a winder at the bottom and was originally enclosed with a door but is now open with a modern balustrade added. Both ground-floor rooms have chimneybreasts; the front room contains a modern reproduction fire grate while the rear room has a later large timber fire surround. Internal doors throughout Number 132 have been replaced and ground-floor floors renewed, though original floorboard floors survive on the first floor. The rear projection houses a modern kitchen.

The first floor contains one room to the front and one to the rear. The front room has an early 19th-century timber fire surround with a cast-iron grate, while the rear room has a chimneybreast rising from the ground floor. An opening has been created through the north gable end between both rooms with a short flight of steps inserted to provide access into the first floor of the adjoining workshop, which has been converted into a modern bathroom. The ground floor of the workshop, accessible only externally, contains a single room with a chimneybreast and copper incorporating probable late 19th-century brickwork. Internal access between the two floors of the workshop no longer exists, though originally there would probably have been a trap door and ladder.

The interior of Number 130 was not inspected.