The Squirrels

The Squirrels is a house, now a nursing home, located on Warley Road in Great Warley. Built in the mid-19th century with 20th-century additions, it is constructed of yellow brick with hipped slated roofs. The building follows an H-plan layout, with substantial additions arranged around a service court to the north-west.

The east elevation presents the principal façade, featuring projecting wings to the north and south with full-height three-cant projecting bays. The south wing is two storeys and the north wing three storeys, with a central three-bay range between them. The entire frontage is finished with a parapet and cornice featuring stone modillions on the central range or plain triglyphs on the south wing. An open stucco Tuscan portico with coupled columns spans the central range.

On the north wing, all nine windows are fitted with 20th-century horizontally pivoted casement windows with glazing bars; ground and first-floor windows have 3x4 panes while second-floor windows have 3x2 panes. All windows have stuccoed surrounds. The central range has a ground-floor central doorway with a stuccoed cornice on console brackets, fitted with a 20th-century six-fielded panel door with subdivisions. Flanking triple sash windows flank this doorway. The first-floor central bay is slightly recessed, with three pedimented windows—the outer two with triangular pediments and the centre with a segmental pediment. These pediments are linked by stucco aprons to matching pediments on the second floor. First and second-floor windows are 20th-century horizontally pivoted casements with glazing bars (3x2 panes on the second floor).

The south wing's ground floor contains three round-headed windows with moulded stucco heads, keystones, moulded linking imposts and string course, fitted with plain sash windows. The first floor has three windows with wide moulded architraves and pediments on console brackets; the central window is segmental-headed while the outer two are triangular. These are fitted with 20th-century horizontally pivoted casements. A moulded string course runs at sill level.

The south (garden) elevation is two storeys, styled similarly to the south wing of the east elevation. A full-height three-cant bay window projects at the west end, with a three-window range to its east. The ground floor has six round-headed deep windows with plain sashes; the first floor has six windows with wide architraves and pediments on console brackets, with the bay's central window featuring a segmental-headed pediment. An ogee canopy spans the entire frontage and continues around to the west side, supported on cast-iron supports with arched heads decorated with circles and quatrefoils.

The west elevation has two broad projecting wings with a narrow central range enclosing the staircase. The south wing contains two bays with windows on both ground and first floors similar to those on the south elevation, though ground-floor windows have been altered—one is blocked and another now has a French window with upper glazing and lower panel. The central recessed range features a large first-floor 'Venetian' stair window in a shallow depressed arch with glazing bars (2x4, 4x4 plus glazed arch with 2x4 panes). Below this, a ground-floor fully glazed projection porch has a 20th-century fully glazed door. The north wing contains a three-window range; the ground floor is largely obscured by a 19th-century addition with hipped slated roof, which includes one plain triple 19th-century sash window, three small windows (being refurbished at the time of listing), and one simple 20th-century door. The north wing's first floor has three sash windows with glazing bars (3x2 panes).

The north service elevation is irregular, with a principal four-bayed east block, a major two-bayed west block, and a minor single-bayed unit between three stacks, all three storeys high. The ground floor of the east block is largely obscured by an original extension with a balustraded parapet that mainly conceals a hipped roof projecting at the west end. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension and a full-height tower addition between obscure the west side. Windows on the east block are irregular but similar to those on the north wing of the east elevation. The central and west units have three first-floor 20th-century casements and three second-floor 19th-century sashes with glazing bars (3x2 panes). The central unit has a 19th-century sash window with a covering grille and glazing bars (3x4 panes). A service and stable court at the north-west corner was undergoing complete refurbishment at the time of listing and is not included in this listing.

The interior features a central hall with Corinthian columns, panelled beams, and plaster ceiling decoration. A spacious well stair leads off to the west, now mostly blocked off by a 20th-century fire wall at its foot. The stair is in early 18th-century style, with an open string and decorative brackets to the tread ends, and balusters that are alternately fluted and twisted. An arcade exists on the first-floor landing. The principal rooms at the north and south ends feature plaster ceiling decorations.