Thornton Manor

Thornton Manor is a grade II* listed country house that was the principal residence of William Lever, Viscount Leverhulme, the founder of Lever Brothers (now Unilever). The house evolved through several building campaigns between the 1840s and 1914, creating a complex mansion in the Jacobean style with Vernacular Revival references.

The original house dates from around the 1840s to 1850s and was purchased by the Forwood family in 1863. William Lever rented the property in 1888 when it was still a modest Victorian villa, buying it in 1891 when he began an extensive programme of expansion and remodelling that continued for 25 years. His architect friend Jonathan Simpson made initial alterations around 1891, followed by substantial work by Douglas and Fordham around 1896. Grayson and Ould designed the kitchen and service wing, J.J. Talbot created the stables around 1899 and the music room in 1902, and J. Lomax-Simpson designed the southwest garden front between 1912 and 1914. The house served not only as Lever's family home but as an important business venue where he worked, held meetings, and entertained staff and friends.

The building is constructed of red sandstone with light sandstone dressings, stone slate roofs, and decorative lead rainwater goods. It is predominantly three storeys plus basement, with a complex irregular plan. An attached reverse U-shaped stable and garage court lies to the northwest. The house features a long southeast entrance front, an E-plan southwest garden front, and a double-height music room to the northeast rear set at an angle to the main building with a fernery attached. Glasshouses, an indoor swimming pool and supper room are positioned at the far northeast corner at right angles to the music room and fernery.

All elevations display decorative stonework, lead downpipes with decorative wall fixings and ornate moulded hoppers incorporating latticework, stone mullion and mullion-and-transom windows with leaded glazing (some patterned), hoodmoulds to windows and doors, projecting stringcourses, substantial ridge and end stacks, and decorative pierced balustrades of varying styles above bay windows.

Southeast Entrance Front

The entrance front features a two-bay single-storey entrance hall right of centre with a projecting porch to the left bay containing the main entrance. The light-coloured sandstone door surround has a carved frieze, a decorative iron lantern above, and a heavy panelled door. The porch has a shaped parapet with light-coloured stone relief bearing the carved date '1906'. To the right bay is a ten-light mullion-and-transom canted bay window with light-coloured stone surround, round-headed upper lights, two-light side lights, and a decorative pierced balustrade above. A shaped gable behind and above contains a fake small square glazed window. Slender two-light transom windows flank the window on each side.

Set back to the right is a two-storey gabled bay with a first-floor canted oriel window with mullioned lights. Further right at an angle is the taller two-storey southeast gable wall of the music room with a shaped gable containing an eight-light mullion window. Two further plain gables on the right return elevation have mullion windows. These windows provide light for the double-height top-lit barrel-vaulted ceiling of the music room hidden beneath the pitched roof. A glass fernery sits to the right side of the music room.

To the left of the entrance hall are two three-storey bays with shaped gables, the right one larger than the left. Both have two-storey polygonal bay windows with mullion-and-transom lights (patterned leaded glazing to ground floor), round-headed upper lights, light-coloured stone dressings, and decorative carved friezes above the first floor, surmounted by decorative pierced balustrades with small urn-style finials. Mullion windows are set within gables above and behind.

A four-bay three-storey wing attached to the left projects slightly forward from the entrance front. The far left bay has a two-storey canted bay window with mullion-and-transom lights containing decorative leaded glazing and round-headed upper lights, with a plain parapet above. A second-floor cross window has carved decorative relief above the hoodmould, with a plain gable above featuring kneelers surmounted by pointed finials. Bay two has a ground-floor doorway with a shallow Tudor-arched head, chamfered reveals, carved hoodmould, and a recessed door with moulded fillets and decorative strap hinges. A two-light window sits to the far right of the ground floor. The first floor has two-light windows to the centre bays and a three-light window to the far right bay. Mullion windows appear on the ground and second floors of the right gable wall return.

Southwest Garden Front

The garden front presents a fully symmetrical seven-bay three-storey E-plan with projecting gabled end bays. The central full-height gabled bay, surmounted by ball finials, breaks forward and features a 12-light mullion-and-transom window to the ground floor with decorative cusped upper lights. This window is flanked by paired fluted Doric-style columns set upon carved bases with a moulded entablature and dentil cornice above. The columns are surmounted by large decorative urns at first-floor level. The cornice continues across the bay.

The upper two floors have canted corners. The first floor has an eight-light mullion-and-transom window with traceried upper lights, and the second floor a four-light mullion window with round-headed lights and patterned leaded glazing. A carved frieze runs between the first and second floors, continuing across the flanking bays and inner return elevations of the end bays. Slender paired half-columns flank the upper-floor windows, with those to the second floor having diagonal fluting in their upper parts. A carved square relief with shield decoration appears in the gable, with a blind arrow-loop style window in the apex above. Paired windows to the side returns of the bay match those to the front.

The two flanking bays mirror each other with paired cross windows to the ground floor containing round-headed upper lights, and six-light windows to the first floor above in the same style. The gabled outer bays have porches to the ground floor containing side return entrances with carved door surrounds. Cross windows to the front of the porches match the adjacent bays, with paired pilaster decoration and plain parapets above featuring decorative carved friezes beneath. Three-light mullion windows appear at first-floor level above, with paired two-light mullion windows to the second floor.

The wide projecting end bays have two-storey canted bay windows with plain parapets, each with six lights to the front and four lights to the sides, all with round-headed upper lights. Four-light mullion windows appear at the second floors. Each inside return elevation features substantial end stacks and a gabled bay to each inner corner with a three-light mullion window to the first floor above and behind the porch, and paired two-light mullion windows to the second floor.

Northwest Side Elevation

Facing the garden terrace, this elevation features a two-storey octagonal tower to the left with an outdoor dining room attached in front to part of the ground floor. The tower has mullion-and-transom windows to ground and first floors and a plain parapet to the roof. To the right, set back slightly, is a three-storey gabled bay with two-storey half-canted bay windows (the left side of the bay runs straight to join the adjacent tower and is blind). The ground floor has a 12-light mullion-and-transom window with double doors to the centre leading onto the terrace, round-headed upper lights, and a decorative pierced balustrade above with a three-light window to the second floor behind. The first floor of the right return has a six-light mullion-and-transom window.

A three-bay section set back to the far right of the elevation forms the left return of the southwest garden front wing, with bays to the right stepping forward. The far right gabled bay has two-storey mullion-and-transom canted bay windows with patterned leaded glazing surmounted by a balustrade, and a three-light mullion window to the second floor behind the balustrade with carved relief decoration above.

The ground-floor bays to the left, incorporated into the projection, contain a tall slender six-light window with patterned leaded glazing and a three-light mullion window to the right. Mullion windows appear to the upper floors behind, with those to the first floor of the centre bay having cusped heads.

Outdoor Dining Room

This single-storey structure (originally stables, converted in 1900) is built in the style of a loggia and attached at a right angle to the northwest side elevation. The blind northeast wall has short buttresses facing the rear stable yard. The long three-bay southwest front elevation faces the garden terrace, with each bay having a raised gable. Large paired carved arched openings to each bay contain a central circular stone pier with square piers to the outside, all with carved capitals. The arches are decorated with small pyramidal-shaped reliefs. A square sundial with relief lettering sits above the arches to the centre bay. An inscription to the lower part reads 'TEMPUS EDAX RERUM' ('Time, the devourer of things'). The gables, surmounted by ball finials, contain narrow arrow-loop openings. The southwest garage range is attached to the northwest gable wall.

Rear Elevation

The rear presents a complex asymmetrical composition with various projecting wings. To the left, the northwest gable wall of the music room features a large polygonal bay to the ground floor with blind nine-light windows (the apse of the music room) and a decorative pierced balustrade above surmounted by shaped finials. A false eight-light mullion window is set within the shaped gable behind and above (upper lights with arched heads) with a hoodmould.

Set back to the right and aligned with the music room is a two-storey bay with full-height polygonal bay windows containing two-light mullion windows to the ground floor and three-light mullion windows to the first floor, with a flat roof featuring a small central pedimented gable. To the right, facing northwest, is a gabled bay with a first-floor canted oriel window. A single-storey flat-roofed section behind containing the rear entrance connects to a four-bay wing set at a right angle, forming part of the servants' quarters.

Bays one and two have a gable, with three-light and single-light mullion windows to the ground floor with hoodmoulds. Double doors appear at the ground floor of bay two, with paired mullion windows to the first floor. A small single-storey gabled workshop is attached to the west gable wall of the servants' wing, featuring trefoil decoration to the gable apex and an angled buttress to the front right corner. The servants' wing continues to the left into an internal yard area with an enclosed walkway at first-floor level (with later render).

A four-bay single-storey rendered building aligned northeast-southwest is attached to the left of the music room and connects to a large double-height rendered supper/refreshment room with a tall brick ridge stack. Both have copper roofs. The supper room has a catslide roof incorporating an outshut to the northwest side. Multipaned casement windows appear to the northwest sides of both buildings. The southwest gable wall of the supper room has a nine-light roundel window, and the northeast gable wall features a large arched multipaned window. A mid to late 20th-century single-storey indoor swimming pool lies behind (not of special interest) in the same alignment, along with original glasshouses. A single-storey glass fernery aligned northwest-southeast sits between the swimming pool, greenhouses and music room.

Stable and Garage Court

The large two-storey reverse U-shaped court is attached to the northwest gable end of the outdoor dining room and built in a similar style to the house. It is multi-gabled with ball finials, leaded-light mullion windows, and substantial chimney stacks. The northeast range contains stables and garages, with garages in the southwest and northwest ranges. An original cast-iron canopy over the yard has been removed. The yard has plain and herringbone block paving.

The five-bay southwest range has a central projecting bay with a large arched opening to the ground floor (now blocked up) with hoodmould, flanked by diagonal buttresses. A square panel containing a blind roundel sits at the centre of the first floor within the shaped gable, flanked by paired lancet windows, all beneath a hoodmould, with an arrow-loop opening above. The centre of the two left bays has a single wide arched opening into the garage, with three-light and two-light mullion windows to the first floor. The right bays have a square opening to the ground floor with timber double doors, and two-light and three-light mullion windows to the first floor.

The three-bay northwest range has a canted full-height gabled bay to the centre containing a large square opening with timber double doors to the ground floor with slender side lights, and a wide four-light window to the first floor. The outer bays have square openings to the ground floor in the same style, with a raised cupola to the ridge line behind the gable.

The seven-bay northeast range has a four-light mullion window with decorative leaded glazing to the ground floor of bay one. Bay two features a canted full-height gabled bay with a central arched doorway to the ground floor (stables entrance) with paired side lights containing decorative glazing, and a loading door to the centre of the first floor with flanking lights. Bay three has a large projecting gabled bay containing two large arched openings to the ground floor forming an open porch. A door to the rear of the porch flanked by mullion windows leads to the harness room, a door to the left leads to the stables, and stairs to the right lead to the first floor. Angled buttresses flank the arched openings. A moulded rectangular panel above the arches features relief lettering reading '1899'. A five-light mullion window with hoodmould appears at the first floor, with an arrow-loop opening above and a raised cupola to the ridge line behind the gable. Bay four has mullion windows.

Bay five features a large arched opening to the ground floor (garage) with a dormer window above featuring a three-light window partly below the eaves line, and an arrow-loop opening to the gable apex. Bay six has an identically styled ground-floor opening. Bay seven has a three-light mullion window to the ground floor, with a dormer window above in the same style as bay five.

The rear elevations are similarly styled with plain and shaped gables, mullion windows, and buttresses. Exceptions include small shallow arched windows set high to the ground floor of the rear of the northwest range with ventilation grills, with some also to the rear of the northeast range. A projecting two-storey bay to the rear of the southwest range has paired arched openings to the ground floor in the same style as the outdoor dining room to the far right. Two single-storey gabled workshops project to the rear of the northeast range with large eight-light mullion-and-transom windows and a door to the left return with a moulded arched surround and oak door.

Interior

The interior is highly eclectic, with each room representing a different style or period in history. Geometric patterned pink and grey marble floors appear in the corridors and inner hall, with parquet floors to all other areas (some hidden under carpets to the upper floors). Original panelled doors survive throughout. Granite and marble fireplaces feature in every room. The ground-floor corridors have painted panelling with plasterwork ceilings and friezes, fluted Ionic columns on pedestals, and classical-style doorcases with swan-neck pediments (some with wide fanlights and partly glazed double doors).

Entrance Hall

The surviving part of the Douglas and Fordham house of 1896-7 features a vaulted Adams-style ceiling. This space was variously used as a dining room and billiard room before the house was extended in 1912-14. It has classical-style plaster doorcases with moulded entablatures and painted wall panelling. An ornate marble and alabaster fireplace with Ionic half-columns, egg-and-dart mouldings, and an elaborately carved overmantle is set within a wide arched panelled recess to the northeast wall. Billiard cue racks sit next to the fireplace. Doors with plaster decoration flanking the arch conceal cupboards. A late Louis XV Aubusson pastoral tapestry from around 1770 is set within a panel in the southwest wall, depicting two shepherdesses and a shepherd boy. A door to the entrance vestibule sits in the southeast corner.

French Drawing Room

Located to the southwest of the entrance hall, this room features decorative boiseries to the walls inlaid with carvings of musical instruments and trophies, a carved marble fireplace, and a decorative moulded plaster ceiling and cornice. A central opening dividing the room into two is supported by fluted Doric-style columns on carved pedestals and a beam with scrolled carvings.

An extremely large gentlemen's lavatory/cloakroom lies to the northeast of the entrance hall with a pink and grey geometric patterned marble floor, marble walls, built-in cupboards, and a coat rail attached to the centre of a plain coffered ceiling with egg-and-dart moulded cornice. A corridor to the rear of the entrance hall leads to the large inner hall to the southwest garden front.

Inner Hall

Used as a living hall, this space features a large square seating recess to the northeast side containing a carved marble fireplace with classical male and female figurines and cherubic imagery, possibly by Canova. The decorative Ionic arcade either side of the fireplace recess forms part of the Douglas and Fordham house. A wide main open-well stair set within the first arch of the arcade to the right, with turned mahogany balusters and wreathed handrail (the arcade column to the right and pilaster to the left form newel posts), rises to the second floor. The hall has painted panelled walls and a decorative plaster ceiling and frieze. The library and 'Adams Room' are set within the two projecting wings to the southwest garden front, with the library in the right wing and the Adams Room in the left wing.

Library

The Jacobean-style library has oak panelling, with rows of parallel bookcases to either side of the entrance door hidden from the main view of the room by a panelled wall. A door to the left of the southeast-facing bay window leads to the formal entrance courtyard to the front of the house, with a dummy door to the right of the window. A marble fireplace with a Tudor arched opening and decorative carved panelled overmantle is the focal point. The ornate strapwork plaster ceiling is modelled on the State Room of Old Palace, Bromley-by-Bow.

Adams Room

This room features an 18th-century brown and white marble fireplace incorporating fluted Ionic half-columns and a carved relief depicting an agricultural scene. It has a highly decorative plaster ceiling and wall decoration, with alternating large blind panels and slender vertical panels containing plaster decoration to the walls, and a moulded frieze.

Dining Room

The early Georgian-style dining room has walnut panelling incorporating fluted pilasters, a carved walnut fireplace with an elaborate carved overmantle, a highly decorative plaster ceiling, and pedimented doorcases with panelled double doors. A door to the northwest end wall leads to the outdoor dining room, a door to the northeast wall leads to the kitchens, and French doors to the centre of the northwest-facing bay window lead to the garden terrace.

Lady Lever's Room

A corridor to the north of the entrance hall leads to the music room and a small stair to Lady Lever's first-floor sitting room, lit to the southwest side (overlooking the internal yard) by six-light mullion windows with decorative patterned leaded glazing. The corridor has classical doorcases with moulded entablatures. A short stair flight is lit by an internal leaded-light mullion window in the same style as those overlooking the yard. The first-floor sitting room features heated window seats, painted panelled dado, built-in cupboards, and a stone fireplace with a timber surround.

Music Room

The Renaissance-style music room is top-lit with a highly elaborate plaster barrel-vaulted ceiling containing painted panels by Giovanni Cipriani (originally installed in the Hanover Square Rooms, London, later the Hanover Club) and large stained-glass side panels. The room has a parquet floor. A large alabaster and marble fireplace with carved overmantle is set within a deep panelled recess to the centre of the west wall. A highly ornate arcaded brown and white marble gallery above the entrance to the recess contains a stone winder stair leading to the Henry Willis and Sons organ, supported on dark green and white marble (Verde Antico) Ionic columns and pilasters. Heavy doorcases have scrolled swan-neck pediments.

Oak panelling to the walls by H.H. Martyn of Cheltenham incorporates fluted Ionic pilasters with relief panels above depicting carved heads, and a deep carved console frieze. A top-lit semi-circular alcove/apse to the northwest end has a domed ceiling containing decorative patterned leaded glazing, a mirrored back (original shelves removed) interspersed with fluted Ionic pilasters, and large decorative oak relief carvings above the mirrors depicting musical instruments and foliage, with a console frieze. Decorative gilded double radiators complete the room.

Fernery

A four-panel door to the northeast wall of the music room leads into the 90-foot-long glass fernery with a glazed iron roof lying parallel to the music room. It contains rockeries, a stream and fish pond. A pierced decorative stone floor panel inside the door within the fernery reads 'MUSIC ROOM'.

Glasshouses

The original heated glasshouses behind the fernery lie northeast-southwest (in poor condition) and have the same roof structures as the fernery.

Supper Room

A door to the northeast corner of the music room leads to the large supper room with arched recesses to the southeast wall incorporating keystones. The adjacent mid to late 20th-century indoor swimming pool (not of special interest) replaced the original temporary ballroom.

Upper Floors

The original room layout survives with bedroom suites to the first floor. Features include built-in cupboards and wardrobes (some doors replaced), decorative carved marble fireplaces, plain moulded cornicing, painted panelled walls, and some original bathroom fittings. The first-floor gallery above the inner hall has a decorative Ionic arcade and painted panelled walls in the same style as the ground floor below, a decorative plaster ceiling, a carved marble fireplace to the northeast wall, and classical doorcases with swan-neck pediments. A similarly styled large landing area appears at the second floor.

The Sanctum suite (Viscount Leverhulme's original suite and office) lies on the first floor above the northeast half of the French Drawing Room and part of the servants' wing. An open-air bedroom to the rear of the suite is set upon a strengthened platform between two converging roof slopes, with a partial canopy (glazing removed), gutters sunk into the floor, a large white marble bath with hinged wooden lid, and an original sink.

Servants' Quarters/Wing

The servants' quarters have parquet floors to the kitchen, butler's flat and staff room (possibly originally the housekeeper's room), tiled floors to the rest of the ground-floor areas, and timber floorboard floors to the second-floor servants' rooms. A multi-coloured tessera floor appears in the main corridor within the servants' wing (the central section within the inner yard area has a glazed conservatory-style roof and leaded-light windows to the northeast side). A plain timber stair sits at the northwest end of the wing. Original built-in cupboards, shelves and dressers survive. Cream glazed tiled walls with brown glazed tile dados are standard throughout. An electrical servants' call system and boxes appear on the ground and upper floors. Six-panel doors are used throughout.

Large cold stores to the scullery and butler's pantry retain their original reinforced doors. A dumb waiter survives. Cast-iron fireplaces with brick surrounds appear throughout. The kitchen has a glazed sloping roof to the southeast end of the room, with a door to the northwest wall leading into the outdoor dining room. The staff/housekeeper's room adjacent to the music room has oak panelled walls and a large fireplace with a decorative carved timber fire surround and green tiles. The butler's flat above on the first floor has a fireplace with a decorative carved timber surround. Original fireplaces with timber surrounds (some also with tiling) appear in the second-floor rooms, with built-in cupboards.

Outdoor Dining Room

The outdoor dining room has a herringbone block paved floor, plaster walls with timber panelled dado, a geometric timber panelled ceiling, and tall loggia-style paired arched openings to the southwest wall. Doors to the southeast end lead to the kitchens and Georgian dining room, and a door to the northwest end leads to the rear stable yard.

Stable and Garage Court Interior

Herringbone block paved floors and geometric timber panelled ceilings appear throughout. The stables retain original stalls with decorative iron vents set into the ceiling and bright yellow tiled walls with timber panelled dados. Large decorative panels composed of green hexagonal tiles with decorative tiled frieze borders appear at each stall, with painted corner feeders and original sliding metal stall doors surmounted by ball finials. The tack room has a geometric coloured tiled floor, mahogany and pine built-in cupboards and drawers, a fireplace with timber surround, and a patterned tiled hearth.

The garages have white tiled walls and panelled dados. An early mechanic's pit appears in the garage to the northeast range. Cantilevered stone open-well stairs with stick balusters and mahogany handrails in the southwest and northeast ranges lead to first-floor accommodation with original four-panel doors, partly glazed hallways, timber floorboard floors (some hidden under later carpets), and fireplaces with timber surrounds (some reclaimed).

Workshops to the rear of the northeast range have an inner vestibule with a panelled door set within a partly glazed surround, blue-green and yellow tiled dados, white tiling to the upper parts of walls, geometric patterned tiled floors, and panelled ceilings with patterned vents.

Historical Context

William Hesketh 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. A year later he expanded the business to a second premises in Wigan. From these twin bases, Lever further expanded into manufacturing soap, 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 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 is still in operation today as Unilever.

William Lever was a Liberal MP, 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 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 7th May 1925, shortly after returning from a world tour and inspection of his business interests.

Thornton Manor is believed to have been constructed in the 1840s to 1850s but was not lived in until 1863 when it was bought by the Forwood family. William Lever rented it in 1888 when it was still a relatively modest Victorian villa, as it was located close to his business at Port Sunlight. He bought the manor in 1891 and immediately started expanding and remodelling it as his largest and main residence, with works continuing for the next 25 years. 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. Thornton Manor was officially given over to his son in 1919, although it remained Lever's principal residence until his death.

Minor alterations to Thornton Manor were first made by Lever's best friend and architect, Jonathan Simpson, with substantial works carried out by Douglas and Fordham of Chester around 1896. Little now remains of this house apart from two shaped gables and bay windows to the southeast front elevation, as Lever immediately decided he wanted more additions. The kitchen and servants' quarters designed by Grayson and Ould were added, followed by the stables in 1899 by J.J. Talbot. Part of the stables was converted into an outdoor dining room in 1900, as it was considered too close to the kitchens. The music room, also by Talbot, was added in 1902. A temporary ballroom was constructed in 1904, which was replaced by an indoor swimming pool in the mid to late 20th century. The original main entrance to the Douglas and Fordham house was through the present southwest garden elevation, but the house and entrance were re-orientated around 1906 to face southeast, and a gatehouse was built in 1910. A new garden front was created between 1912 and 1914 by Lever and J. Lomax-Simpson.

The death of his wife and the outbreak of the First World War halted further expansion plans, which included a half-timbered range to the front attached to the gatehouse that would have formed a courtyard plan. During the First World War, the manor was used as a Red Cross hospital under the command of Lever's daughter-in-law, Marion Lever.

Thornton Manor is designated at grade II for its significant special historic interest as the principal residence of William Lever, Viscount Leverhulme, who was directly involved in all stages of the house's design and construction. Its design and plan maximises its setting, forming a close inter-relationship with the grade II listed gardens designed by Lever and Thomas Mawson. Its highly eclectic design and styling reflects the eccentric character and tastes of its creator, and its layout was specifically designed to enable Lever's business practice of 'working whilst walking'. The house played a pivotal role in the work and success of Lever Brothers, as it was here that William Lever worked, held meetings, and entertained friends and staff. It survives with very little alteration since Lever's death in 1925 and possesses an intact interior of exceptional quality, with an eclectic mixture of rooms carefully chosen by William Lever to represent different styles and periods in history. Remarkable survivals include the lavish music room, fernery, outdoor dining room, and the Levers' outdoor bedroom complete with William Lever's original marble bath. It has group value with Manor Lodge and other buildings in forming the Thornton Manor estate.