Beauchamps

Beauchamps is a house dated around 1688, with possible earlier origins, located on Sutton Shopland Road. It has undergone later alterations and additions. The building features a timber frame with plaster and a red plain tiled roof. There are original and partly rebuilt red brick chimney stacks, with additional stacks on the rear ranges. The house is two storeys high and has a tripartite roof over a two-storey porch on the inner right bay.

The eaves cornice is modillioned, and the façade has a window arrangement of three small paned vertically sliding sashes, with a panel dated 1688 situated between the second and third first-floor windows. The porch doorway has a fluted surround, frieze, and flat canopy, with part-glazed double doors and side margins.

Inside, the features reflect the circa 1688 date, including a fine plaster ceiling divided into two bays by a carved beam. Each bay contains elliptical wreaths of laurel leaves and berries with central pendants of fruits and flowers, surrounded by four cherub heads alternating with rosebuds. At either end of the ceiling are roses and fleur-de-lis. The house also boasts a fine staircase with barley sugar twist balusters, an unusual position for this date, as well as panelling in some rooms, moulded surrounds, wainscots, dados, and ornate ceiling covings. There are two fine fireplace surrounds, with the ground floor one featuring a painted landscape above. The original staggered side purlin roof remains intact. Beauchamps was the home of Rev. Philip Benton, a 19th-century historian.