Gatehouse To Thornton Manor And Attached Courtyard Walls

This gatehouse forms the entrance to Thornton Manor and was built in 1910 to designs by architect James Lomax Simpson. The structure is built of red sandstone set upon a moulded plinth with a timber-framed first floor and stone slate roof. Windows are mullioned with leaded glazing throughout this two-storey building, which has attached courtyard walls.

Exterior

The gatehouse has three bays. Windows are set within stonework with carved surrounds and double-chamfered mullions. Substantial Tudor-style chimneystacks with octagonal shafts and decorative caps rise from the rear of the pitched roof. Decorative moulded lead downpipes and gutters are fitted throughout. A wide recessed Tudor-arched carriageway occupies the centre of the ground floor, featuring decorative spandrels and carved corbels above in the form of grotesques.

The front south-east elevation faces Manor Road. The carriageway has large studded heavy timber 18-panel double doors with cusped upper panels, decorative strap hinges, and a small square barred spy-hole in the right door. The canted sides of the archway contain three-light mullion windows. A five-light mullion window with central king mullions occupies the ground floor right bay.

The timber-framed first floor has a deep cove with a decorative carved and corbelled bressumer, and the timberwork incorporates quatrefoil designs. A wide seven-light canted oriel window with diamond leaded lights is positioned at the centre of the first floor, supported by a large carved corbel displaying Viscount Leverhulme's coat of arms, which incorporates spotted elephants. The coat of arms also includes a banner with the motto 'MUTARE VEL TIMERE SPERNO' (meaning 'I scorn to change or to fear'). Above this is a large central gable with decorative patterned timberwork and carved bargeboards. The two outer bays each have paired two-light mullion windows recessed into the coving.

The rear north-west elevation faces the main house and is similarly styled to the front. A two-storey stone canted stair bay contains small single lights at ground floor and half-landing level, with a four-light window at first floor. A three-light mullion window occupies the ground floor right position. A five-light mullion window is recessed to the centre of the timber-framed first floor. The side elevations feature decorative timberwork and mullion windows in the same style.

The carriageway passage has Tudor-arched doorways to each side, fitted with three-panel doors incorporating moulded fillets, cusped ogee-shaped heads and timber tracery. The door to the south-west side, which leads into the porter's office or kiosk, has a small square barred spy-hole. High sandstone walls with gate piers surmounted by ball finials are attached to each side of the gatehouse and continue around the entrance courtyard to connect to the front elevation of Thornton Manor.

Interior

The ground floor is divided by the central carriageway. To the left (south-west) side is a bedroom and small bathroom with the original panelled and partly glazed porter's kiosk. Living accommodation occupies the right (north-east) side, with a lounge containing a fireplace with moulded surround. The kitchen has a tiled floor and some original built-in cupboards. A door in the south-west wall provides access to a small yard area containing single-storey storage outhouses.

The first floor accommodation spans the entire building and is accessed by a winder stair in the rear right stair bay. There is a panelled landing area with a corridor to the rear, three bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms to the front. Original panelled doors, moulded skirtings, and timber floorboard floors (some beneath later carpets) survive throughout, along with some built-in cupboards.

Historical Context

William Hesketh Lever was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1851. After training in his father's grocery business from the age of 16, he became 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 the company's activities into manufacturing soap, first at Warrington and eventually at Port Sunlight. By this time the company had become 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 is still in operation today as Unilever.

William Lever was a Liberal Member of Parliament, social reformer, and 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 also 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 10.

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 or 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, works that continued 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 or fairs. Thornton Manor was officially given over to his son in 1919, although it remained Lever's principal residence until his death.

The gatehouse was built in 1910 to the designs of James Lomax Simpson, who was a pupil of Grayson & Ould. Edward Ould was the architect of Wightwick Manor and was an expert on local black-and-white vernacular architecture. Further timber-framed buildings were planned around the courtyard and gatehouse, but the outbreak of the First World War and the death of Lever's wife put an end to these plans.

The last Lord Leverhulme died in 2000 and the house, 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 gatehouse is now used as holiday accommodation.