Upper Berwick

BOMERE HEATH C.P. UPPER BERWICK SJ 41 NE 6/104 Upper Berwick 29.1.52 GV II*

Small country house. Circa 1690, probably for Richard Betton (VII). Service wing added in the late C18, and further alterations and additions of the late C19. Red brick with painted sandstone dressings. Hipped plain tile roof, with C19 fishscale bands and lead flat at rear. Two storeys and attic over basement. Plinth with moulded stone top, chamfered quoins, stone plat band, moulded wooden modilllion eaves cornice, and central 2-bay steep triangular pediment; oculus in tympanum with moulded architrave and star-pattern glazing bars. Pair of dormers with 2-light wooden casements, wooden cornices, and steep triangular pediments. Pair of large square brick stacks on return ridges with oversailing tops. 6 bays; boxed glazing bar sashes with painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads with shaped lower edges. Central small-paned half-glazed door (2 lower flush panels) with moulded architrave, and flanking 4-pane sashes with moulded architraves. Late C19 brick porch with moulded plinth, wooden frieze, cornice with alternating modillions and quatrefoils, and pedimented gable with moulded blind oculus in tympanum. Half-glazed door with 4-part rectangular overlight and flanking narrow sashes. 4-bay return fronts; glazing bar sashes of differing widths, some painted in imitation. Pairs of hipped dormers with 2-light wooden casements and moulded wooden eaves cornices. Right-hand return front with C19 one-storey 2-bay hipped-roofed addition to left, and left-hand return front with C19 flat-roofed square bay to right. Painted imitation sashes to rear too. Service wing at angle to rear. Red brick with plain tile roof, hipped to rear. Two storeys. Dentil brick eaves cornice, external brick lateral stack to rear and external brick end stack. Three-window front to west, with 3-light segmental- headed wooden casements. Interior of house: circa 1690 three-flight square- well oak staircase, rising to attic, with landings, panelled closed string, barleysugar balusters, moulded handrail, and square newel posts with moulded caps and circular pendants, the foot newels formed from groups of 4 balusters. Late C17 two-panelled door to right of staircase on ground floor. Left-and right-hand ground-floor rooms with late C19 moulded cornices and other details. Old staircase to the basement with moulded handrail. Reused moulded beam in ceiling of basement to right. First-floor and attic not inspected. Upper Berwick was the family home of the Bettons from the C14 to the end of the C19. The simple fireplace surrounds mentioned by Forrest were not in situ at the time of survey (January 1987). H.E. Forrest, Some Old Shropshire Houses and their Owners (1924), pp. 101-105.

Listing NGR: SJ4721315914