The Wheatsheaf (PH) Orford Lane Warrington

Public house, attached range of outbuildings and boundary wall. c.1900 with late C20 alterations. By William and Segar Owen, architects for the Greenall Whitley Brewery Company. Red brick with terra-cotta dressings, tall brick chimneys with banded decoration and a hipped Westmorland slate roof covering, laid to diminishing courses. PLAN: Courtyard plan, with public house part to main street frontages, and service courtyard, boundary wall and entrance gateway to rear. FRONT (south-east) ELEVATION: 2 storeys and attics, 3 bays, with double-gabled bays to left, incorporating principal doorway and flanking window to right hand section, and secondary entrance to right hand end. Left hand gable with triple sashes to ground floor, the upper sashes with small panes. Right hand gable with shallow semi-circular arched overlight over 8-panel door, within banded surround. Window opening to right with matching banded surround. First floor with twin Venetian windows below banded gable apexes. Further right, 3 narrow first floor sashes are set above 2 shallow segmental arch-headed ground floor windows with 3-light transoms and a secondary doorway. 3-light attic dormer window set mid-roof slope to right of chimney stack. Left return of 5 bays, with stacked sash windows, with sub-divided upper lights, and lower single bay with single ground floor window. Right return with wide ground floor window beneath arched head, a single sash, and a smaller window opening. INTEPIOR: Original plan form modified, but with clear separation of present bar areas which conform closely to original room divisions. Remodelled bar counter and back bar, but former separate bar areas with moulded plasterwork, fixed bench seating, hearth surrounds etc. ATTACHED RANGE OF OUTBUILDINGS AND BOUNDARY WALL: Rectangular enclosure to rear of public house, with prominent corner stable tower with shallow pyramidal roof, 2 louvred and glazed stable windows beneath lintel band. Panel of red diaper brickwork above. Lower pitched roof outbuilding extends to link with south-cast side wall of public house. Tall boundary wall extends south-westwards, with tall brick gatepiers with domed stone caps defining entrance to service courtyard, and meets south west corner of frontage building. A substantial and well-detailed public house, designed by a notable architectural practice, which demonstrates the level of investment made by an influential regional brewery company in new and remodelled public houses.