Mancroft Towers

LOWESTOFT

TM59SW PROSPECT ROAD, Oulton Broad 914-1/3/101 (North West side) 06/05/83 Mancroft Towers (Formerly Listed as: OULTON ROAD Mancroft Towers)

II

Country House. Commissioned 1889 from George John Skipper by P.E. Back, built 1891-93. Red brick. Machine tile roofs. 2 storeys and dormer attic. Jacobean Revival style. Main front to south-west is irregularly disposed and articulated around a stepped gable to the left, a square entrance porch left of centre and a straight gable to the right. Moulded brick decoration from the Costessey brickworks, Norwich. Fenestration of brick mullioned cross-casements, the principal windows of 4-5 lights and under moulded pediments. The stepped gable has a stack and brick diapering. Gabled roof with one gabled dormer. Restrained stacks litter the skyline. The north-west front is grudgingly symmetrical. Gables to right and left with 4-5 lights to the cross-casements, all under pediments. 2-light attic windows, also with pediments. Internal angles with crenellated 2-storey towers separated by a central gable: cross-casements again, now without pediments. The rear flank (north-east return) dominated by an off-set 4-storey crenellated tower with a polygonal stair turret attached, also crenellated. INTERIOR. Dining hall has a brick segmentally-arched fireplace in the north-east wall under a coat-of arms. Above it is a continuous run of timbered coving. Ceiling with sunk quadrant-moulded bridging beams and joists. Fireplace wall with small-frame panelling. Open well staircase: closed string, splat balusters and moulded handrail, square newel posts with carved griffins (the Back family crest). Music room panelled throughout in large-framed early C18-style panelling. Fireplace with imbricated jambs and cornice. Long Gallery to first floor.

Listing NGR: TM5074893089