Bescaby House

Bescaby House is a farmhouse dating to around 1760, with significant remodelling and enlargement in the 19th century. It is constructed of coursed ironstone with a roof of Swithland slate laid to diminishing courses. The plan is U-shaped, comprising a main frontage range and two parallel rear ranges.

The asymmetrical front elevation features three bays with two storeys and attics. A gabled porch built of gault brick, with a 20th-century door, is centrally positioned. To the right is a late 19th-century bay window with a tripartite sash window, and to the left a similar sash window without a bay. The first floor has three windows; two are late 19th-century sashes, and the third lacks a bay. The gabled roof has internal gable-end stacks, with the stack on the right-hand end reduced in height. The rear elevations have parallel two-storey ranges with sash windows. Those to the right-hand range have margin glazing bars, while those to the left-hand range are 6 over 6 pane sashes. A later 19th-century single-storey service range extends from the left-hand rear range.

The interior’s central entrance doorway leads to a stair hallway featuring stick balusters and a ramped, wreathed handrail. Principal reception rooms are located to the right and left. The right-hand room has a moulded cornice, a spine beam with run-out stops, and a wide, shallow-arched recess in the end wall; panelled shutters are fitted to the window reveals. The first floor has four-panel doors with moulded architraves. A single mid-to-late 19th-century hearth surround survives within the left-hand front bedroom. The attic landing has lime-ash flooring.

Bescaby House forms a group with its listed 19th-century stables and farm buildings, contributing to their group value. The house is situated close to Bescaby Shrinken Medieval Village, a Scheduled Monument located immediately to the southeast of the farmstead. To the east of the house, part of the garden is defined by a semicircular ditch which adjoins a walled enclosure to the northwest of the building. The building’s significance lies in its date, its subsequent remodelling, the degree of its survival, and the good level of internal features preserved, which include the staircase and 19th-century details.