The Tower And Beeches

BEDLINGTON CHURCH LANE NZ 2681 NW (East side) Bedlington

9/63 The Tower and The Beeches

II

House, now 2 dwellings. Late C18, extended and altered 1910. Coursed rubble with tooled or tooled-and-margined quoins and dressings; green slate roof except for blue slates on 1910 south extension. Front elevation 2 + 3 storeys, 4 bays, in 2 sections. Left part set forward; left bay has 2-storey bay window with paired sash windows; 12-pane upper leaf, plate-glass lower; to right porch with renewed door, plain overlight and battlemented parapet, with 8-pane sash above. Hipped roof with corniced ridge stack. On right 3-storey tower with early C20 bronze sundial in moulded stone surround below 2nd floor 12-pane sash in alternating-block surround. Corbelled-out battlemented parapet carrying small corniced stack on right. Right return of tower shows 12-pane sash at 1st floor level. Recessed right part shows two 8-pane sashes to 1st floor of left bay; right bay is 1910 extension with altered windows. Roof hipped to right with 2 ridge stacks, the left rendered, the right stepped-and-corniced.

2-bay left return shows 12-pane sashes in alternating-block surrounds. Rear elevation with 1910 canted bay.

Interior: open-well stair in tower, with stick balusters and steeply-ramped moulded handrail.

Formerly known as Tower Cottage; at one time a school. The tower is said to have been constructed as an atronomical observatory by a C18 curate.

C20 extension on south is not of special interest.

Listing NGR: NZ2606081627