Bede House And Adjoining Screen Wall

Bede House and the adjoining screen wall are almshouses built in 1659, raised and remodeled in 1827, with internal alterations made around 1935. They were commissioned by Alice, Lady Brownlow, and later remodeled for the first Earl Brownlow. The structure is made of coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and features gabled and hipped slate roofs. It has two coped ashlar gable stacks with square flues and two similar ridge stacks with double flues. The building has quoins and coped main gables with kneelers and ball finials.

It is a single-storey building with a five-window range and a half-H plan. The windows are stone mullioned casements with ovolo mullions and cornices, some of which have 19th-century lattice glazing bars. The central entrance features an ashlar doorcase with a boarded door, flanked by single three-light windows. Each return has a similar doorcase with a three-light window on the outer side. Each gable also includes a three-light window.

Beyond the main building, there are short walls with ramped coping that screen a single cell projection, originally a larder. The wings of the building are connected by a screen wall that has a round-arched open arcade and moulded coping. In the center of the screen wall is an ashlar gateway topped with a round gable and three ball finials, inscribed with "Piae Senectae Domus," and featuring a wrought-iron gate. Originally intended to house six women, the almshouses were remodeled into two houses around 1935. This charitable building was established for workers on the Belton estate by the Brownlow family of Belton House.