Close House

Country house, built in 1779 for Calverly and Margaret Bewick. It is constructed of ashlar with a Lakeland slate roof and is in a Classical style. The house is three storeys and five bays wide, with a slightly-projecting, pedimented three-bay central section. The main entrance is through a stone Ionic doorcase with attached columns and an open pediment. Horizontal bands mark the ground floor, first floor, and the sill lines. The ground floor has renewed sash windows in architraves. The first floor has twelve-pane sashes in architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices, and a pediment above the central window. The second floor has square, six-pane sashes in architraves. A modillion cornice runs along the top of the building. The hipped roof has banded ridge stacks. The five-bay returns are also present. A large, single-storey bow window dated 1800 sits on the right return, as indicated by the rainwater head. A two-storey, four-bay service wing extends to the rear, with two bays featuring twelve-pane sashes and two bays incorporating Venetian windows on the ground floor and tripartite windows above.

The interior includes a Rococo Room with elaborate mid-19th century Rococo plasterwork, including relief panels of musical instruments and cherubs, and oval sopraporte panels depicting classical scenes. It also features an elaborate marble fireplace with festoons, angle scrolls, and a central crest inscribed "CMB" for Calverly and Mary Bewick. The Gold Room contains a possible earlier 18th century fireplace with a bolection-moulded surround, an enriched cornice, and full-height fluted Ionic pilasters; the ceiling is an Adam-style plasterwork, dating to around 1800. An open-well, cantilevered staircase has iron stick balusters and a ramped handrail. On the second floor, formerly the nursery floor, the stairwell is screened by two tiers of turned balusters with square knops.