Description

KNUTSFORD

SJ77NE TOFT ROAD
792-1/2/108 (West side)
15/01/74 Bexton Croft

II*

House. 1896, with early C20 addition. By MH Baillie-Scott.
Roughcast render over brick, and mock timber to entrance
front, with stone-flagged roof.
PLAN: planned with entrance hall giving access directly to the
3 principal rooms and kitchen.
EXTERIOR: 2-storeyed, with attics. Entrance front of mock
timber and roughcast render, asymmetrically arranged with wide
gable to right, and narrower gable over entrance towards left,
the two linked by a lean-to roof over hallway. The line of
this lean-to has been continued to the left of the porch in an
early C20 addition to the front of the house. Heavy ribbed and
nailed door with decorative wrought-iron hinges, and knocker
inscribed with a rhyme. Doorway flanked by narrow windows,
with 3-light mullioned window with leading above the door, and
a further window in the gable apex. Decorative bargeboards to
gable. To the right of the porch, a stone carved cat carries
lead rainwater head, with initials DDM and the date 1896.
4-light mullioned window to first floor to left of porch. Two
2-light mullioned windows in the hall lean-to. Wide gable to
right, with 2-light mullioned window to ground floor, and
6-light mullioned window above. Carved cambered tie in gable,
and scrolled decoration to bargeboards. Axial stacks.
Garden front is roughcast render with jettied first storey. 3
principal 6-light mullioned windows with leaded lights, and a
smaller 2-light window to dining room inglenook to left, and
tiny window to gallery stairway towards right. The right-hand
window extends as far as the corner of the house. Recessed bay
to left with enlarged kitchen window and doorway. 4 oriel
mullioned windows with leaded lights variously diamond and
square-latticed, in jettied upper storey. Robust timbering,
with pegged frames to upper windows. Two 6-light dormers in
the roof, also with leaded lights. Pronounced scrolled angle
brackets to overhanging eaves.
Return elevation to west continues as lower gabled wing of
entrance front which links to coach house. Coach house is also
roughcast and mock timber. 2-storeyed, 3 bay plan with central
coach entrance, a 4-centred archway with carving in the
spandrels, and 4-light mullioned and transomed window in the
gable above, with decorative bargeboards.
INTERIOR: entrance and stair hall runs almost the length of

the house, with dado panelling and heavy panelled ceiling
using timber salvaged from a Manchester church, and from
railway coaches.
Kitchen and small service area occupies the right-hand bay of
the house, and the principal rooms, which can all be reached
from the hall, are also interconnected by a series of folding
doors. Dining room adjoins the kitchen, with heavy timber
panelled ceiling, and an inglenook fireplace lined with Delft
tiles. Copper fire-hood with repousse work. Carved wooden
swallows nest with commemorative rhyme on brass plaque in
angle of beams.
Dining room opens onto 'meeting room'. Full-height open hall
with inglenook fireplace at one end, and tiny minstrels
gallery opposite. Panelled lower walls, the upper walls hung
with painted Irish damask table cloths. Close studding to
gallery above inglenook, connected to the hall by wooden
shutters. Panelled ceiling with gilded bosses, emblems of
Cheshire, which are repeated in stained glass motifs in
window. Small brass plaque records that the house was built
for Donald and Bessie Macpherson, and built by John and Joseph
Beswick. Sitting room opens off meeting room, with Adam-style
fireplace with Delft tiles.
Bedrooms also retain original fireplaces, some fitted
furniture and basins.
HISTORY: the house is considered to be one of Baillie-Scott's
best early buildings, and has retained much of its original
detail.

Listing NGR: SJ7551477634

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17551820

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)