Beech Lawn

Beech Lawn is a large house dating from the early to mid-18th century, with significant additions circa 1770, the early 19th century, and the early 20th century. Constructed of hammer-dressed stone with ashlar dressings, with some 19th-century brick to a rear range, it has stone slate roofs. The house is arranged in a T-shape: a small 18th-century cottage was extended around 1770 at right angles, fronting onto the Common, with later additions forming cells to either end in the early 19th century.

The south front originally featured three symmetrical bays. It has an ashlar plinth and band. The doorway is framed by an architrave, a pulvinated frieze, and a triangular pediment, above which is a sash window in a plain raised surround. Flanking bays on this front have original full-height canted bays with sash windows to each floor. Later additions to either side include early 20th-century canted bay windows with sash windows to each face, each with a tripartite lead lean-to roof. The first floor has two sash windows with lintels and projecting sills to the left, and a plain stone plaque to the right. All elements are unified under a single hipped roof, with tripartite hips to the ridge of the canted bays. Four stacks are set into the rear roof pitch.

The rear elevation includes a 20th-century three-bay extension to the left. A wing breaks forward at right angles, featuring a brick gable stack. To the right is a house with a doorway marked by monolithic jambs and an overlight. The right-hand return of the house has an added apsidal glazed conservatory with a segmental tripartite curved glazed sash window above. The wing has three bays of windows; to the right is a former doorway (now blocked) with a chamfered surround, fronting the garden. Two ridge stacks are visible. The left-hand return features three bays of sash windows, with fifteen panes to the ground floor (dining room) and twelve panes to the first floor. A further wing, set back and fronting a yard, has a 19th-century brick bay with a segmental-arched window to each floor, and three bays of sash windows set forward to the right.

The interior includes an entrance hall with an open-well staircase featuring paired, finely-turned balusters and a ramped handrail. A sitting room to the left has an elliptical-arched recess with a chain motif on the architrave, a marble fireplace, a moulded dado rail, and a cornice. To the right, a double drawing-room exhibits fine Edwardian decorative features, with carved fireplaces incorporating fluted Greek Ionic pilasters and cast-iron gates, plus wide, linking double doors. A Regency dining-room has finely decorated architraves framing windows, doorways, and sideboard recesses; a marble fireplace with a cast-iron grate; and a cornice decorated with a Greek key ornament. A room in the rear of the entrance hall, part of the original cottage, contains an 18th-century fireplace with an architrave, fluted frieze, and dentil cornice, flanked by original fitted mahogany drawers and a bookcase. The dining chamber has a marble fireplace on wheels, allowing access to the chimney for sweeping. A drawing-room chamber features a canted plaster ceiling. A back stair has simple stick balusters, leading down to the kitchen.