Description

BOLTON

SD71SW SHARPLES PARK
797-1/2/207 (South side)
26/04/74 Thornleigh House
(Formerly Listed as:
SHARPLES PARK
Salesian College, with garden
terrace, steps and balustrade)

II

House, now in use by Salesian Community. 1868 with extensions
and internal remodelling c1890. Original building by Henry
Stead, architect, for Arthur Lemuel Briggs, a local cotton
magnate. Brick with stone dressings and slate roof.
EXTERIOR: 2 storey, long entrance front with principal rooms
oriented along it, accessed from entrance hall and rear
corridor. Entrance towards left, in porch with bulbous shafts
to arched door with low-relief stone cupids etc. in spandrels.
Balustraded parapet of porch continues over single storey
extension housing dining room inglenook to the left, with
leaded lights each side of the (now truncated) stack.
Advanced 2-window range immediately to right of doorway with
angle pilasters and paired 3-light mullioned and transomed
windows with leaded lights to ground floor, and 2-pane sash
windows above in stone architraves. Balustraded parapet.
2-window range set back to the right, with 2-pane sash windows
in stone architrave on each floor, and advanced bay beyond
(housing present library), with squared bay window to ground
floor, and 4 windows above in stone architraves with segmental
and triangular pedimented heads. balustraded parapet with
central segmentally pedimented panel carrying coat of arms in
low relief.
Garden front comprises 2 gables divided by a narrow
single-window range. Advanced right-hand gable has full-height
bow window. Stilted arched brick heads to windows; corbelled
brickwork in gable apex, dentilled brick string courses.
To the rear of this range, the service wing is in a similar
style, which is quite different from that of the entrance
front, suggesting a different (and probably earlier) phase of
building.
INTERIOR: original layout survives almost unaltered, and many
of the rooms contain elements of a rich late C19 decorative
scheme, including the entrance hall with wall panelling and
gilded frieze, ornate low relief timber piers to arcade, and
inglenook fireplace with pent roof and copper fire hood.
Inglenook fireplaces of a similar character also survive in

the library and the dining room.
HISTORY: built as a private residence, the house was acquired
by the Higher Education Committee of the Borough of Bolton in
1907 for use as a hostel for women trainee teachers, and was
bought by the Salesians in 1923.
(Bolton Journal, 26 December 1884, Pictorial Bolton Series,
XXVII: Bolton; D.O'Connor: Golden Jubilee of Thornleigh
College 1925-1975: Bolton: 1975-).

Listing NGR: SD7079611794

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26667825

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.

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