Old Warden Park

Old Warden Park is a country house, now part of the Shuttleworth Agricultural College, built in 1875-76 by the architect Henry Clutton. It was commissioned by Joseph Shuttleworth, who had become wealthy through the success of his Lincolnshire engineering firm, Clayton and Shuttleworth. The house was designed to imitate Gawthorpe Hall (c.1600), the home of the well-established Lancashire Shuttleworths. A later wing was added in 1883, probably by W Bennison, and further additions and internal alterations were carried out in 1896 by R Weir Schultz.

The building is constructed mainly in ashlar, with the service wing partly in yellow brick. It is designed in the Jacobean style, comprising a 3-storeyed rectangular block with a single-storeyed roof-lit central hall, a 4-stage tower, and a lower wing to the east.

The rooms are arranged in a balanced, although not always symmetrical, plan. The south elevation presents a 5-bay facade with central and outer bays containing 3-storeyed canted bay windows. All windows feature mullion and transom glazing; those in the two recessed bays have moulded labels. The central bay is approached by a flight of steps and forms a porch at ground floor level. This porch has a round-headed stilted archway with moulded surround and label, flanked by clustered columns with bases at various heights. The doorway itself has a segmental head with a moulded stilted arch and dripstone, the stops of which merge into the wall—a treatment consistent throughout the building. The double doors are panelled and part-glazed. Plain string courses mark the first and second floors. A high parapet with loopholes above the recessed bays features horseshoe-arched arcading above the projecting bays. Multiple chimney stacks throughout the building have linked octagonal flues with moulded cornices.

The west elevation has two 3-storeyed rectangular bays. The north elevation features a projecting 3-window bay to the centre, with rounded angles above ground floor level supported on moulded corbels. This projecting bay contains a part-glazed door on the left, surmounted by a stained glass window depicting the seasons, all within a moulded label. Similar fenestration and parapets are found throughout.

The tower's lower stages are plain, with loophole windows to the third stage. The top stage has a balcony on all sides with a similar balustrade to that of the house parapet. Each side of the tower displays a clock face, flanked by louvred windows and surmounted by arcading similar to the house parapet, with a plain parapet and loopholes above.

The east wing is partly, if not entirely, a later addition. It is partly constructed in yellow brick with stone dressings, in a simpler style than the main block. Most windows are smaller and mullioned, except for large mullion and transom windows to the former billiard room, which are similar to those in the main block.

The interior retains most of its original decoration on the ground floor. The front hall features a pink marble chimney piece with a white marble relief of a boar hunt and fairly plain geometric plasterwork mouldings to the ceiling. The library (of which a chapel is a 20th-century subdivision) displays rather Rococo styling, with two white marble chimney pieces with gilt-framed mirrors and light plasterwork panels to walls and ceiling featuring rinceaux and festoons. Two carved wood bookcases are set into the south wall of the northern half.

The dining room is in a simpler Rococo style, including a carved wood fire surround and overmantel. The central hall features heavier decoration, including a deeply coffered gilded ceiling, half-height oak panelling, and a marble and wood chimney piece with grotesque heads, rinceaux, and the Shuttleworth coat of arms. The staircase has simple rectangular ceiling mouldings and an open well stair in oak with square-section moulded balusters.

The billiard room (now the Resources room) in the east wing has a plaster cornice frieze with strapwork and festoons. The carved wood chimney piece incorporates caryatids and panels showing biblical scenes—probably Jacobean in origin—and may be reused from the house of the 3rd Lord Ungley, which was demolished to make way for Clutton's building. The east tower contains service stairs and a lift.