Hillcrest

Hillcrest and Beechview. Formerly known as Tank Cottages, the houses were built early 1850s for estate workers and are contemporary with the adjacent Slurry Tank. John Naylor, a Liverpool banker, had acquired the Leighton Estate in 1846-47 and embarked on an ambitious programme of building, notably Leighton Hall, church and Leighton Farm, all designed by WH Gee and completed by the mid 1850s. Naylor continued to extend and improve the Estate until his death in 1889, during which time a number of dwellings were built. The dwellings exhibit a clear hierarchy of status between the lodges faced in stone, generally in prominent locations, and the humbler brick labourers’ cottages. Naylor’s grandson, Captain J.M. Naylor, sold Leighton Hall and the Estate in 1931.

Pair of single-storey cottages in brick with rusticated stone quoins and plinth band; hipped slate roof with brick stacks behind. The entrances are in the end walls which are double-fronted and have 12-pane sash windows in dressed stone surrounds. Each cottage has a 2-window front with similar windows to end walls. The rear walls have sash windows with stone lintels and sills and face walled gardens.

Modern doors in the end wall and to garden at rear.

Not inspected (November 1996).