Eccles is an ancient settlement, and it grew in size during the 19th century with the development of the textile industry in the town.[1] The oldest listed building is a church, and apart from a 17th-century house and a sundial, the others date from the 19th and 20th centuries. The later listed buildings include houses, churches, public houses, a hotel, a library, an aqueductportal, and a war memorial. Barton aerodrome developed in the 1930s,[2] and two surviving structures from this are listed.
The church has been altered and extended on a number of occasions, including the rebuilding of the chancel in 1862, and the replacement of the south porch in 1923. It is in sandstone with roofs of slate and lead. The church consists of a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a south transeptal chapel, a chancel with chapels and a vestry, a south porch, and a west tower. The tower has three stages, diagonal buttresses, a west door, a west window, clock faces, and an embattledparapet with corner crocketedpinnacles. The nave and aisles also have embattled parapets.[4][5]
Originally a house, later used for other purposes, it is timber framed on a stone plinth with some wattle and daubinfill, and has a repairs and additions in brick and a felt roof. There are two storeys, three bays, and a lean-to extension at the rear.[6][7]
The sundial is in the churchyard of St Mary's Church. It is in stone, and consists of a bulbous baluster on a concrete base. There is a bronze dial but the gnomon is broken.[8]
A house, later offices, in red brick on a projecting plinth with dentilled box gutters and a hippedslate roof. There are two storeys, three bays on the front, two on the sides, and a rear extension. The central doorway has Doric three-quarter columns, a fanlight and an open pediment, and the windows are sashes. The house was the home of James Nasmyth, and later the birthplace of A. V. Roe.[10]
The house, later used for a time as a museum, incorporates a 17th-century timber framed building. It is in brick with a roughcast front on a projecting plinth, with rusticatedquoins, a copedparapet, and a stone-slate roof. It has two storeys, a symmetrical front of three bays, a single-storey extension to the left, and a parallel timber-framed range at the rear. In the centre is a porch with a Tudor arched head, and a door with a fanlight. The ground floor contains cantedbay windows, and in the upper floor are sash windows with a central mullion and a hood mould. There is a central gablet.[14][15]
The church is in yellow sandstone with a tiled roof, and is in Gothic style. It consists of a nave with a clerestory, north and south lean-to aisles, a lower chancel with flanking chapels, and a detached northwest steeple. The steeple has a three-stage tower with angle buttresses, a north doorway, and a broach spire with lucarnes. The windows on the sides of the church are lancets, and the east window has five lights with Decoratedtracery.[16][17]
The public house, which was remodelled in about 1910, incorporates a former house to the south. It is in red brick with a slate roof, the public house has three storeys, and the former house has two. The building is on a corner site, with one bay on Liverpool Road, three bays on Eliza Ann Street, and a canted bay on the corner; the former house has a further three bays. The original windows have been replaced, and internally are Art Nouveau features.[20]
Two swing bridges in parallel crossing the Manchester Ship Canal, designed by Leader Williams. The road bridge carries Barton Road (B5211), and the aqueduct carries the Bridgewater Canal, and both swing on a central axis. The road bridge has a bow-string lattice girder on each side of the roadway, and the aqueduct has a boxed lattice girder and a channel that remains full of water on swinging. On the north side of the Ship Canal is a brick control tower with four storeys, two bays on each side, and a pyramidal roof.[25][26]
The lychgate is at the entrance to the churchyard of Monton Unitarian Church. It is in stone and in Gothic Revival style. The lychgate has a pointed archway with a gable and a cross finial on each side. The archway is moulded, and has colonettes and a hood mould. The gable is coped and contains a carved figure in a niche and an inscription. The gates are in cast iron and are elaborately decorated.[23][27]
The theatre, later used for other purposes, is in red brick with terracotta dressings, and is in Renaissance Revival style. There are four storeys and a front of five bays, the left bay rising to a tower with corner pilasters, a mouldedcornice and a curved parapet. Above the ground floor is a canopy, and in the first floor are three mullioned and transomed windows with semicircular heads. The upper floor contains small rectangular openings, and at the top are three circular windows with moulded surrounds, scrollwork and swags.[14][28] The building was in poor state of repair in November 2019.[29] The building was damaged further by a large fire on 1 December 2019.[30] Developers plan to convert the site into apartments by the end of 2020.[31] Delayed by Covid conversion to apartments now in progress June 2024.
The public house is in red brick with red terracotta dressings, it has a slate roof with red ridge tiles, and is in Jacobean style. The building is on a corner site, with a rectangular plan, two storeys with cellars, a front of four irregular bays, and mullioned and transomed windows. The first bay has a cantedbay window and a shaped gable with a finial. The second bay is recessed and contains a porch with a pedimentedparapet containing a dated shield. In the third bay are decorative panels between the floors, and the fourth bay is canted and contains a doorway. At the top is a balustraded parapet.[32][33]
A red brick public house with buff terracotta dressings and a slate roof, hipped to the right, in Edwardian Baroque style. It is on a corner site, with a trapezoid plan, a modillioncornice, a parapet, two storeys and cellars, a front of five bays with a canted corner bay, and six bays in the right return. The doorway has an architrave and a segmental pediment, and the windows are sashes. In the corner bay is an inscribed and dated plaque.[32][34]
The public house is in red brick with dressings in sandstone and terracotta, and has a slate roof with red ridge tiles. It is on a corner site, with a trapezoid plan, two storeys, a front of five bays, a mouldedcornice, and a parapet with shaped gables and a balustrade. In the centre is a doorway with pilasters, a segmental pediment and a cornice on consoles, above which is an oriel window with a dome cap and a broken pediment, and an upstand with a segmental pediment containing a lamb and the date. The windows are sashes, and on the roof is a cupola with a lead domed roof.[32][35]
The library, built with a grant from Andrew Carnegie, and designed by Edward Potts, was extended in 1971. It is in red brick with dressings in terracotta and stone and a stone-slate roof, and is in mixed Renaissance style. There are two storeys, five bays, and extensions to the left and rear. The doorway has Ionic half-columns, and an open pediment with a coat of arms. Flanking the doorway are ornate pilasters rising to a cornice, and a parapet with scrolled coping and decorative panels. In the ground floor are Venetian windows in arches, and in the upper floor are paired windows with Ionic columns. The fifth bay is recessed, and the fourth bay projects forward as a large cantedbay window with a swagfrieze. On its top is balustrade, behind which is an octagonal belvedere with a domed roof.[16][36]
The war memorial was designed by John Cassidy. It is in Portland stone, and consists of the bronze statue of the angel of Victory holding a palm, and standing on a tall tapering square shaft on a mouldedplinth. On the front of the shaft is a bronze panel with the figure of a soldier in battledress in low relief, and below it is an inscribed plaque.[16][39]
The earliest civil aviation aircraft hangar in England, it has a steel-framed structure with brick walls and a sheet roof. The hangar has 13 bays, and is about 70 metres (230 ft) long, 35 metres (115 ft) wide, and 10.5 metres (34 ft) high. To the northeast is a single-storey workshop, and on the south gable end of the hangar is a stone plaque with a coat of arms.[40][41]
An airport terminal building converted from a farm building, and later used as offices, it is in red brick with a Welsh slate roof. The building has an L-shaped plan and a single storey. It contains doorways and transomed windows.[40][42]
The control tower is in brick with a roof of reinforced concrete. It is octagonal with three stages, and stands on a podium with four radiating wings. The tower has a glazed upper stage, a concrete balcony and steel railings, and access is by an external stairway.[40][43]
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