Brunel Manor

Brunel Manor

A large house, now a conference centre, built circa 1870 by architect J Watson for JR Crompton, a Lancaster paper manufacturer. The design is said to conform to a ground plan based on cellars originally designed by William Burn for Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The house occupies a site where Brunel's own residence was planned but never constructed beyond some initial groundworks.

The building is constructed of local grey crazed limestone rubble with Bathstone dressings. The roof is slate with cusped bargeboards. The chimney stacks feature clustered brick shafts, mostly set diagonally, with stone bands and projecting cornices.

Originally laid out as an L-shaped plan with a double-depth main range, entrance on the north side, and garden elevation facing south, a north-west dining room connected to the service wing. A ballroom was added subsequently to the east end of the main range. The house is set within extensive grounds.

The exterior is 2 and 3 storeys with deep eaves supported by moulded brackets and rock-faced quoins. Windows are mostly glazed with 2-pane plate glass sashes. The garden elevation to the south shows a symmetrical 5-window front with end bays projecting forward and gabled. A small gable marks the centre bay. Two-storey canted bays to left and right have hipped slate roofs with decoratively-cut slates; ground-floor bays are topped with similar slate canopies on timber brackets. Attic windows feature deep tympana with stone carving, and centre windows have carved tympana beneath polychromatic arches with two gableted attic dormers.

To the left, the front is set back with 2 gables and a 20th-century single-storey addition. A 6-bay verandah with cast-iron columns and cusped timber brackets projects forward. A single-storey canted bay projects to the right of the main front.

The north elevation is more irregular, dominated by a 3-storey-and-attic entrance tower with steep hipped roof, gabled to the front and two windows wide. A moulded arched doorway with shafts is sheltered by a massive porch canopy with diamond-patterned slates on substantial timber brackets and a cast-iron balustrade with trefoil-headed motifs. The original 2-leaf door remains. The tower displays paired windows at the second stage with moulded arches below a tympanum containing a carved roundel. To the right of the entrance tower, the front is gabled over a 5-light arched stair window with quatrefoils below. Wrought-iron globe lamps on stone bases flank the entry. The service wing front, to the right, is irregular and rendered in a slightly plainer style. The ballroom addition to the left features 8 gabled roof dormers with cusped bargeboards and blind segmental-headed arcading below, with a projecting lateral stack. A 20th-century addition obscures the south side of the ballroom.

The interior remains largely intact despite alterations required by fire safety regulations that have concealed some features. The entrance hallway features heavy doorcases with trefoil-headed friezes and nail-head enrichment, pine-panelled doors, an original chimneypiece, and plaster cornices. The stair hall has a coved ceiling and an open-well stair with turned balusters, a moulded handrail, and brass lampholders. Other rooms retain fine plaster cornices and chimneypieces of various designs. Upper floors preserve original doors and chimneypieces. The ballroom addition has an inserted ceiling but retains an elaborate chimneypiece.

A handsome High Victorian house with eclectic detail, Brunel Manor preserves most of its original fittings and represents a confident exercise in mid-19th-century domestic architecture.