| Summary : Tower college was probably built 1879-80 by the Liverpool architect Edmund Kirby. A construction date of circa 1830 has been suggested, but there is no evidence surviving of a building of this date. The date stone on the front facade insribed 1831 was inserted by the present owner of the building. It is a large country house in free Jacobethan style, built of local red sandstone with a slate roof incorporating fishscale bands. The building is of two storeys and displays many characteristics of this architectural style with carefully detailed oriel windows, balustrades and parapets, steep roof gables and high Elizabethan style chimneys. The building was requisitioned as a hospital during the First World War. Half of the building was converted into a private school in 1948 and in the 1950s the rest of the building became part of the school. In 1957 a service wing at the north end of the building was demolished to make way for a large two storey classroom block, with a large two storey senior northeast of the main building added in 1995, two additional modern blocks were added after this. In 1996 the original conservatory was replaced by a uPVC one. |
More information : Tower college was probably built 1879-8 by the Liverpool architect Edmund Kirby. A construction date of circa 1830 has been suggested, but there is no evidence surviving of a building of this date. The date stone on the front facade insribed 1831 was inserted by the present owner of the building. It is a large country house in free Jacobethan style, built of local red sandstone with a slate roof incorporating fishscale bands. The building is of two storeys and displays many characteristics of this architectural style with carefully detailed oriel windows, balustrades and parapets, steep roof gables and high Elizabethan style chimneys. The building was requisitioned as a hospital during the First World War. Half of the building was converted into a private school in 1948 and in the 1950s the rest of the building became part of the school. In 1957 a service wing at the north end of the building was demolished to make way for a large two storey classroom block, with a large two storey senior northeast of the main building added in 1995, two additional modern blocks were added after this. In 1996 the original conservatory was replaced by a uPVC one.
Internally within Tower College there are two rooms of high quality with an abundance of timber decoration, including a sitting room and panelled room (known as the library but which was more likely to have a dining room), and an impressive main stair hall with cantilevered open-well stair (the parquet floor is 20th century). These rooms are decorated in Jacobean style with decorative ceilings, built-in dressers, fireplaces with de Morgan tiles and overmantles, and multi-panelled doors. One other room to the ground floor retains original features, including a decorative plaster ceiling, but it has been altered and opened up from its original configuration as two rooms. The remaining rooms to both floors have been extensively altered and remodelled with rooms knocked through, partitions inserted and rooms subdivided, 20th century doors inserted, doorways blocked up, artexed ceilings, altered secondary stairs, and nearly all original features removed including fireplaces. During late 20th restoration works some casements and window furniture have also been replaced and some cornicing and skirtings that appear original are late 20th/early 21st century replicas. The basement consists of a series of rooms, some of which have been altered.
The building was assessed for listing in 2006, but due to the considerable alterations and additions it was not considered suitable for addition to the list. (1)
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