Beeleigh Grange

Beeleigh Grange

Farmhouse, now house, dating to the 18th century and possibly earlier. The building is timber-framed with part white weatherboarding, part 20th-century pargeted plaster, and part brick. The roofs are of plain tiles with brick stacks. The plan form is very complex, comprising a main range with unarticulated cross-wings, a parallel block to the rear with a small stair tower, and a further wing on the north corner.

The exterior front is of white weatherboarding, presenting two storeys with a four-window range. Unarticulated gables sit at each end, with the north-eastern gable continuing down as a catslide over a one-storey-and-attic structure. Each cross-wing has a flush 16-pane sash with moulded surround on each floor. The central part has moulded eaves and contains a 12-pane sash and a 16-pane sash on the first floor. The ground floor has an off-centre flat hooded doorcase with consoles, moulded architrave, and a door of six raised-and-fielded panels, with a further 16-pane sash below on the first floor. The south-west flank has a stack, white weatherboarding, and a 12-pane sash on each floor. The north-east flank of the main block has a lower eaves line and a dormer with catslide roof and one 12-pane sash window. The block forming the northern corner has two roofs at right-angles, one being a western extension of the cross-wing. Its south-east elevation has a 16-pane sash on each floor, with the ground floor faced in red Flemish-bond brick with some grey headers on all exposed faces. The north-east flank has a gable stack with partially painted brickwork. The north-west elevation is in two parts with an asymmetrical raised section with hipped roof. The first floor has two 16-pane sashes over a single similar window and a plain tripartite sash. A stack against the flank of the taller part breaks through the ridge line of the lower roof. The small stair tower has an independent roof parallel with the main range and a semicircular window with Gothick glazing bars to light the rear of the ground-floor entrance hall.

Internally, the earliest surviving parts appear to be remnants of a one-storey-and-attic gambrel-roofed cottage, incorporated in the north-east corner of the front range. This is probably 18th century in date and contains a frame of reused medieval timbers. The main block has the format of a 17th-century house but appears to be a very old-fashioned structure with a softwood frame and numerous tie beams to the structure below. The roof has clasped purlins, and the cross-wings are contemporary, seemingly all of the 18th century. The north corner block is partially a large kitchen with, on the ground floor, a wide fireplace with arched and keystoned opening and a stone-flagged floor with two large spine beams with lambs-tongue chamfers. The interior now has an early 19th-century character, featuring a wide off-centre entrance hall with a semicircular arch on Adamesque capitals over reeded elliptical columns. An access passage to the rear, outside the main range structure, has a semicircular arch on pilasters with moulded capitals. The main stairs are of dogleg form in the stair tower with shaped tread ends, stick balusters, and a hardwood handrail. A service stair at the northern end of the rear corridor has a column newel and stick balusters. One southern front range room has a dentilled cornice.

The building occupies the original site of the former Abbey Farm. Sir Edwin Landseer spent considerable time here as a guest of the owner, Mr W.H. Simpson.