Beech House

Beech House is a late 18th-century house, altered in the late 19th century. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with brick dressings to the original section, and later red brick additions. The building has a central entrance hall plan and is two storeys with an attic, arranged symmetrically with three bays. Quoins are present, and there are two-course brick cill bands to each floor. A flight of stone steps leads to the entrance, which features an 18th-century doorcase with an architrave, a frieze having a raised central panel with a moulded festoon, a dentilled cornice, and a hood carried on carved consoles. The door is a six-fielded-panel design, set beneath a moulded cornice and a three-pane overlight within a panelled reveal. In the late 19th century, projecting bays were added to either side, containing cellar windows and pairs of sash windows to the ground and first floors, all set within segmental brick arches with dripmoulds and raised keys. A single sash window with margin lights sits above the entrance in an enlarged original opening with a brick surround. A dentilled brick eaves cornice is present. A hipped roof covers both the bays and a central dormer which has margin lights. Brick stacks are situated at the ends of the building, and the gable ends have 18th-century pointed attic windows featuring Gothick glazing bars.

The interior retains original features, including a good open-well staircase with a ramped and wreathed handrail, column-on-vase balusters with square knops, and a moulded stairhall ceiling with a cornice. There’s also an arched alcove with an architrave on the ground floor right, along with moulded cornices and chimney pieces with composition ornament in the first-floor rooms, and panelled doors.