Thornton Manor
Encyclopedia
Thornton Manor is a large house in the village of Thornton Hough
, Wirral
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
as a Grade II listed building. The house was first built in the middle of the 19th century and has been altered and extended in a number of phases since. From 1888 to the end of the 20th century the house was occupied by the Viscounts Leverhulme
. It is now used as a conference and events centre, and a venue for weddings.
family of North Wales. The land was bought in 1849 by Charles William Potts, a solicitor. It is thought that he built the manor house
, but there is no evidence that he lived there. In 1863 Potts sold the house and land to Thomas Brittain Forwood, a businessman who died in 1884. His son, Sir William Forwood, chairman of Liverpool Overhead Railway
, let the house to William Lever
(later 1st Viscount Leverhulme), builder of the soap factory and model village
at Port Sunlight
, in 1888.
s. William Lever bought the house in 1893 and lived here from 1888 until 1919, retaining onwership until his death in 1925. Lever started on a series of alterations and additions soon after his purchase. The architect Jonathan Simpson made some minor alterations but the first major work was designed by the Chester
firm Douglas & Fordham in about 1896. This constituted the main block of the house and was in Elizabethan
style.
In 1899 stables designed by J. J. Talbot were built and around this time a kitchen and service quarters designed by Grayson and Ould
were added. In 1902 a music room followed, also designed by Talbot, and this formed a new block to the northeast of the main block. Two years later a temporary ballroom was built, which was later converted into a swimming pool. A porch was added to the south front in 1906, changing the main entrance to the house from the west to the south. A gatehouse designed by J. Lomax-Simpson was built in 1910; the base of this is in stone and its upper part is half-timbered
.
In 1913 a major reconstruction of the house took place when Elizabethan-style wings were added to the west side of the house. Lomax-Simpson was again the architect. In the process of the reconstruction, most of the work designed by Douglas and Fordham was demolished, leaving from their design only two shaped gable
s and semicircular bay window
s. Plans for further enlargement of the house were prepared by Lomax-Simpson, but these were not built because of the intervention of the First World War. The 1st Viscount Leverhulme died in 1925 and the house was inherited by his son, William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme. He died in 1949 and the house passed to his son, Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme
. Philip Lever died in 2000 and the following year the house was sold, with planning permission to convert it into a hotel.
roofs. It has three storeys and an irregular plan. The entrance front faces southwest and has protruding wings on both sides. Behind the house, at an angle towards the northeast, is the wing containing the music room. The windows are mullion
ed and a number of them are in canted
, two-storey bays. The stables extend to the northwest.
and a bridge. The gardens as they now are were planned by Thomas H. Mawson
and the 1st Viscount. The kitchen garden contains a loggia
dated 1912, and there is another loggia to the southeast of the house; both were designed by Lomax-Simpson. To the northeast of the house is a structure known as The Lookout, which was designed in 1896 by Douglas and Fordham. A lake lies to the west of the house. A system of tree-lined avenues
was laid out in 1912–14 by Lomax-Simpson, and has a total length of about 5 miles (8 km).
Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins and historically a part of Cheshire. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever...
, Wirral
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a Grade II listed building. The house was first built in the middle of the 19th century and has been altered and extended in a number of phases since. From 1888 to the end of the 20th century the house was occupied by the Viscounts Leverhulme
Viscount Leverhulme
Viscount Leverhulme, of the Western Isles in the Counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created in 1922 for the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Baron Leverhulme...
. It is now used as a conference and events centre, and a venue for weddings.
History
The land on which the house stands was owned originally by the MostynMostyn Baronets
There have been two Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Mostyn, both in the Baronetage of England. One creation is extant as of 2008....
family of North Wales. The land was bought in 1849 by Charles William Potts, a solicitor. It is thought that he built the manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
, but there is no evidence that he lived there. In 1863 Potts sold the house and land to Thomas Brittain Forwood, a businessman who died in 1884. His son, Sir William Forwood, chairman of Liverpool Overhead Railway
Liverpool Overhead Railway
The Liverpool Overhead Railway was the world's first electrically operated overhead railway. The railway was carried mainly on iron viaducts, with a corrugated iron decking, onto which the tracks were laid. It ran close to the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, following the line of Liverpool Docks...
, let the house to William Lever
William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician....
(later 1st Viscount Leverhulme), builder of the soap factory and model village
Model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, in most cases built from the late eighteenth century onwards by industrialists to house their workers...
at Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between 1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire...
, in 1888.
Leverhulme Era
Thornton Manor became the home of the Viscount LeverhulmeViscount Leverhulme
Viscount Leverhulme, of the Western Isles in the Counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created in 1922 for the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Baron Leverhulme...
s. William Lever bought the house in 1893 and lived here from 1888 until 1919, retaining onwership until his death in 1925. Lever started on a series of alterations and additions soon after his purchase. The architect Jonathan Simpson made some minor alterations but the first major work was designed by the Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
firm Douglas & Fordham in about 1896. This constituted the main block of the house and was in Elizabethan
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
style.
In 1899 stables designed by J. J. Talbot were built and around this time a kitchen and service quarters designed by Grayson and Ould
Edward Ould
Edward Augustus Lyle Ould was an English architect.Ould was a son of the rector of Tattenhall, Cheshire. He became a pupil of the Chester architect John Douglas and in 1886 he joined in partnership with the Liverpool architect G. E. Grayson. His early work was influenced by Douglas,...
were added. In 1902 a music room followed, also designed by Talbot, and this formed a new block to the northeast of the main block. Two years later a temporary ballroom was built, which was later converted into a swimming pool. A porch was added to the south front in 1906, changing the main entrance to the house from the west to the south. A gatehouse designed by J. Lomax-Simpson was built in 1910; the base of this is in stone and its upper part is half-timbered
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
.
In 1913 a major reconstruction of the house took place when Elizabethan-style wings were added to the west side of the house. Lomax-Simpson was again the architect. In the process of the reconstruction, most of the work designed by Douglas and Fordham was demolished, leaving from their design only two shaped gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s and semicircular bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
s. Plans for further enlargement of the house were prepared by Lomax-Simpson, but these were not built because of the intervention of the First World War. The 1st Viscount Leverhulme died in 1925 and the house was inherited by his son, William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme. He died in 1949 and the house passed to his son, Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme
Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme
Philip William Bryce Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, KG was a British peer.Lever was the only son of William Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme and his first wife, Marion. In 1949 he inherited his father's titles and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire that year, a post he held until 1990...
. Philip Lever died in 2000 and the following year the house was sold, with planning permission to convert it into a hotel.
Architecture
The house is built in stone with slateSlate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roofs. It has three storeys and an irregular plan. The entrance front faces southwest and has protruding wings on both sides. Behind the house, at an angle towards the northeast, is the wing containing the music room. The windows are mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
ed and a number of them are in canted
Cant (architecture)
Cant is the architectural term describing part, or segment, of a facade which is at an angle to another part of the same facade. The angle breaking the facade is less than a right angle thus enabling a canted facade to be viewed as, and remain, one composition.Canted facades are a typical of, but...
, two-storey bays. The stables extend to the northwest.
Grounds
The park was first laid out during Forwood's ownership. It included paths, a small summer houseSummer house
A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places...
and a bridge. The gardens as they now are were planned by Thomas H. Mawson
Thomas Hayton Mawson
Thomas Hayton Mawson , better known as T. H. Mawson, was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner....
and the 1st Viscount. The kitchen garden contains a loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
dated 1912, and there is another loggia to the southeast of the house; both were designed by Lomax-Simpson. To the northeast of the house is a structure known as The Lookout, which was designed in 1896 by Douglas and Fordham. A lake lies to the west of the house. A system of tree-lined avenues
Avenue (landscape)
__notoc__In landscaping, an avenue or allée is traditionally a straight route with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each, which is used, as its French source venir indicates, to emphasize the "coming to," or arrival at a landscape or architectural feature...
was laid out in 1912–14 by Lomax-Simpson, and has a total length of about 5 miles (8 km).