Upper Berwick

Upper Berwick is a small country house dating to circa 1690, likely built for Richard Betton (VII). A service wing was added in the late 18th century, with further alterations and additions in the late 19th century. The house is constructed of red brick with painted sandstone dressings. It has a hipped plain tile roof, featuring 19th-century fishscale bands and a lead flat to the rear. The house is two storeys and an attic over a basement.

The front elevation features a plinth with a moulded stone top, chamfered quoins, a stone plat band, a moulded wooden modillion eaves cornice, and a central two-bay steep triangular pediment; an oculus is set within the tympanum with a moulded architrave and star-pattern glazing bars. Dormers are present with two-light wooden casements, wooden cornices, and triangular pediments. Large square brick stacks stand on the return ridges with oversailing tops. The windows are boxed glazing bar sashes with painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads with shaped lower edges. A small-paned half-glazed door, with two lower flush panels is centrally positioned, set within a moulded architrave, flanked by four-pane sashes with moulded architraves. A late 19th-century brick porch extends from the front, featuring a moulded plinth, wooden frieze, cornice with alternating modillions and quatrefoils, and a pedimented gable with a moulded blind oculus in the tympanum. A half-glazed door with a four-part rectangular overlight and flanking narrow sashes are within the porch. The return fronts contain differing widths of glazing bar sashes, some painted to resemble stone. Pairs of hipped dormers with two-light wooden casements and moulded wooden eaves cornices are also present.

A 19th-century, one-storey, two-bay hipped-roofed addition extends from the right-hand return front, and a flat-roofed square bay is recessed into the left-hand return front. Simulated sashes are present at the rear. A service wing projects at an angle from the rear, constructed of red brick with a plain tile roof, hipped to the rear. It has a dentil brick eaves cornice, an external brick lateral stack to the rear and, an external brick end stack. The west-facing front of the service wing has three windows with three-light segmental-headed wooden casements.

The interior features a circa 1690 three-flight, square-well oak staircase rising to the attic, with landings, a panelled closed string, barleysugar balusters, a moulded handrail, and square newel posts with moulded caps and circular pendants; the foot newels are formed from groups of four balusters. A late 17th-century two-panelled door is located to the right of the staircase on the ground floor. The left-and right-hand ground-floor rooms contain late 19th-century moulded cornices and other details. An old staircase descends to the basement which holds a reused moulded beam in the ceiling to the right. The first floor and attic were not inspected.

Upper Berwick served as the family home of the Bettons from the 14th to the end of the 19th century. Simple fireplace surrounds, previously mentioned, were not in situ during a survey in January 1987.