Nos 1 And 2 Manor Cottages And Boundary Wall

Manor Cottages comprises a pair of semi-detached estate workers' cottages built around 1873 for the Thornton Manor estate. They are constructed of rock-faced red sandstone with ashlar dressings, under a Welsh slate roof with a terracotta ridge crest and cast-iron rainwater goods. The design is in a simplified Gothic style and the cottages rise to two and a half storeys.

The cottages stand alongside Manor Road to the north of the main house. The front (east) elevation is symmetrical in appearance with two bays: Number 1 is to the left and Number 2 to the right. At ground floor level are six-light mullion and transom windows. The first floor has cross windows partly set within gabled dormer windows, with timber lattice fretwork between the bargeboards at the gable apex. All windows feature decorative stained glass in the upper lights. The windows have ashlar surrounds, quoined to the lower parts. A slightly projecting ashlar band between the ground and first floors incorporates the first floor sills and contains an inscription at the centre of the elevation reading 'Manor Cottages'. Two flush ashlar bands run across the ground floor. This banding continues around all elevations. A large cross-shaped stack rises from the centre of the ridge.

The left (south) side elevation has overhanging eaves with lattice fretwork at the gable apex matching the style of the front elevation dormers. At attic level is a cross window with stained glass upper lights, surrounded by vertical and horizontal ashlar banding bordering rock-faced stone laid at angles, giving the appearance of timber framing. At first floor level is a small square ashlar panel with a shield relief displaying the letters 'TBF'. An early to mid 20th-century enclosed porch with a pitched slate roof is attached at ground floor, with a plain timber door on the south side having six small glazed lights in the upper part.

The right (north) side elevation is identical in styling to the south side elevation, but the ashlar panel with shield relief displays the date '1873'. At ground floor is an off-centre doorway with an ashlar surround incorporating chamfered reveals and a shaped head, fitted with a plank and batten door. A small single-storey outhouse projects outwards from the rear right of Number 2, with a pitched slate roof, stone copings, a tiled ridge crest, a stack at the west end, a doorway to the partial east gable wall (the south half of the east gable wall is attached to the rear of Number 2), and a narrow casement window on the north side elevation. The south elevation of the outhouse faces into a small rear yard and has a doorway at the west end flanked by a two-over-two sash window to the right and a narrow two-light window to the left. Open storage lean-tos along the south side of the yard continue into the yard for Number 1.

The rear elevation of the cottages has four bays. The first floor of both cottages has two-light and four-light casement windows. Number 1 has a two-light casement stair window in the right bay at half-landing level. Timber lean-tos are attached at ground floor to both cottages: the one at Number 1 is enclosed with a door and windows, while the one at Number 2 has an open west side.

Inside, the cottages have a symmetrical plan form with two rooms at ground floor (Number 1 has an additional enclosed lean-to at the rear), two bedrooms and a bathroom at first floor, and a bedroom in the attic. Original steep timber dog-leg stairs run alongside the side external walls between ground and first floors, with plain newel posts and stick balusters. Between the first floor and attic in both cottages are straight flights with winders. The front ground floor rooms have cast-iron fireplaces with timber surrounds (possibly reclaimed), and there are chimneybreasts in the front first floor rooms. Original panelled doors are fitted throughout. The floors are timber floorboards except for tiled floors in the kitchens.

A low random rubblestone boundary wall with triangular-shaped copings surrounds the cottages to the front and south side, with gate piers topped by pyramidal finials.

The cottages were built around 1873 and are believed to have originally served as semi-detached workers' cottages for the Forwood family's Thornton estate. Thornton Manor itself is thought to have been constructed in the 1840s or 1850s but was not occupied until 1863 when the Forwood family purchased it. William Hesketh Lever rented the manor in 1888 when it was still a relatively modest Victorian villa, as it was close to his business at Port Sunlight. He bought the manor in 1891 and immediately began expanding and remodelling it as his largest and main residence, works that continued for the next 25 years.

William Lever was born in 1851 in Bolton, Lancashire. After training in his father's grocery business from the age of 16, he was made a junior partner in 1872 and a year later expanded the business to a second premises in Wigan. From these twin bases Lever expanded the company's activities into soap manufacturing, first at Warrington and eventually at Port Sunlight. The company became 'Lever Brothers', established with his brother James (although William was always the lead partner). The company went on to possess factories and mills around the world, including in the Congo, as Lever expanded the business into the production and processing of raw materials and eventually diversified into other areas. Lever Brothers became one of the largest multinational companies in the world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and still operates today as Unilever.

William Lever was a Liberal Member of Parliament, social reformer, and a pioneer of good worker-employee relations. He introduced the eight-hour working day and provided a pay policy greater than any other company in the country. In 1905 he provided pensions for his staff, three years before they were introduced by the government in 1908. Lever Brothers was also one of the first companies to employ a full-time safety inspector and company doctor, and to provide respirators and a rota system for workers working in dusty conditions. Decades before it became a legal requirement, Lever Brothers had introduced alarms and sprinklers in all their departments and had their own voluntary ambulance and fire brigade. The staff were also taken on day and weekend trips in Britain and Europe.

William Lever built Port Sunlight model village for his workers, which included a planned landscape of houses with gardens, allotments, large open spaces and parks (ten years before Ebenezer Howard's plans for a Garden City), shops, a hospital, school, post office, sports facilities, church, dining halls, a public house, the Lady Lever art gallery, and a library. The children of Port Sunlight and Lever's junior staff were required to attend school and devote time to education (paid for by Lever Brothers) including languages, science, engineering, accountancy, mathematics and English literature, even though by law school was only compulsory up to the age of ten.

Lever was created a Baronet in 1911. In 1917 he was made a Lord and took the title of Lord Lever of Bolton-le-Moors. Finally in 1922 he was created Viscount Leverhulme (adding the surname of his wife Elizabeth Hulme who had died in 1913). He died at The Hill (his London home) on 7 May 1925 shortly after returning from a world tour and inspection of his business interests.

Thornton Manor formed an important part of the business of Lever Brothers as well as a family home, as Lever often worked at the house, held meetings there, and entertained staff at dinners, parties, and garden parties and fairs. Thornton Manor was officially given over to his son in 1919, although it remained as Lever's principal residence until his death.

After the estate was purchased by William Lever, he added timber lean-tos and a small range of outhouses to the rear of the cottages, creating a small yard area. The last Lord Leverhulme died in 2000 and the house, cottages (including Numbers 1 and 2 Manor Cottages), stabling, gardens and 125 acres of parkland were sold, although the remainder of the Thornton Manor Estate, including the village of Thornton Hough, was retained by the Leverhulme family. The cottages were redecorated around 2007 and are now used as holiday accommodation.