Portal is a country house standing to the northeast of the village of Tarporley

Tarporley

Tarporley is a large village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England....

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, England. It was built in 1900–05. The architect was Walter E. Tower, nephew and partner of the stained glass designer and manufacturer C. E. Kempe

Charles Eamer Kempe

Charles Eamer Kempe was a well-known Victorian stained glass designer. After attending Twyford School, he studied for the priesthood at Pembroke College, Oxford, but it became clear that his severe stammer would be an impediment to preaching...

. It is a timber-framed

Timber framing

Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

 building in Domestic Revival (Black-and-white Revival

Black-and-white Revival architecture

The Black-and-white Revival was an architectural movement from the middle of the 19th century which revived the vernacular elements of the past, using timber framing. The wooden framing is painted black and the panels between the frames are painted white...

) style. The house has been designated by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a Grade II* listed building. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner

Nikolaus Pevsner

Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...

says of it: "It is a tour de force in accurate but scaled-up imitation of timber-framed mansions".