Bearstone Grange

Bearstone Grange is a farmhouse, now a house, dating to the mid-16th century, with alterations and additions from the 19th century. The structure is timber framed with painted brick nogging set on a painted dressed sandstone plinth, with partial rebuilding in red brick (painted to the front but retaining the old sandstone plinth). It has slate roofs. The timber framing is characterised by square panels, with 4 from the sole plate to the wall plate at the front and 3 at the side, featuring parallel diagonal struts forming lozenge patterns and closely-spaced studs beneath the windows. The house is arranged in an L-shape, comprising a 2-bay hall range and a 3-bay gabled cross wing projecting to the right.

The hall range has 2 first-floor 20th-century three-light wooden casements, and 2 ground floor segmental-headed 20th-century three-light wooden casements flanking a central 2-light 20th-century wooden casement, all with tiled sills. A flat-roofed brick porch, built in the 20th century, is positioned in the angle of the cross wing, with a 20th-century six-panel door (the top two panels glazed) and a coped parapet. The cross wing has a jettied first floor to the front, supported by a moulded bressumer, a corner post with splayed feet, hewn brackets and cable-moulded shafts, and a jettied gable. Ground-floor and gable jetties are further supported by 6 small shaped brackets springing from short, billet-ornamented rails flanking the windows. There is a first-floor four-light wooden casement and a ground-floor canted bay of 1:3:1 lights to the front of the cross wing. The gable above has a collar, king struts, diagonal struts creating a lozenge pattern, and plain barge boards with a finial. The left-hand return front of the cross wing has a small 20th-century first-floor casement.

Inside, the house retains C16 deep-chamfered ceiling beams and a chamfered jowl post. Exposed framing is visible, with angle braces, and at least one truss features a cambered tie beam. The entrance hall has a deep-chamfered beam and a chamfered beam with ogee stops. An old double door (vertical and horizontal planks) to the cross wing remains, with wrought-iron strap hinges. A central ground-floor room has a large open fireplace with a deep, heavily-moulded C16 wooden lintel. A left-hand ground-floor room, used as a kitchen, features a reset large chamfered wooden fireplace lintel.