Beauchamps

A house dating to circa 1653, originally built for Ralph Beash, was later re-faced in brick around 1860. The timber frame is visible, exposed in red brick sills, incorporating materials from the demolition of Ardeley Place. The polychrome brick facade has white brick dressings and quoins, and a steep red tile roof. Tall red brick chimneys are prominent, including an unusually large internal chimney.

The house is of lobby-entry plan, originally two storeys with attics and a small cellar, facing south. It follows a symmetrical plan, altered in the 19th century with the addition of a gabled central porch and a passage through a stack, and features gabled rear projections at the northeast and northwest, each with a wide stair rising to the attic and a service room on each floor. Contemporary projecting end chimneys each service two floors and the attic, and contain chamfered, three-centred brick arched fireplaces on every floor. The east half of the house was used for service purposes, with a large kitchen served by a middle stack, alongside an end parlour and pantry adjacent to the stair. An unheated parlour is located in the northwest projection behind the stair. A hall and end-parlour with oak scratch-moulded panelling occupy the west half, with corresponding chambers above.

The symmetrical front facade, dating from around 1860, features two bays on either side of a gabled, two-storey porch defined by pilasters. It has large recessed three-light wooden casement windows with horizontal bars on each floor, and square-headed moulded labels of stone or stucco over the ground floor windows. A chamfered plinth is present. A Tudor arched doorway, with an arched label and battened door, leads to the entrance, accompanied by a two-light casement window above with a label and pierced sinuous bargeboard with a pendant to the gable. Very tall red brick chimneys with square shafts are linked at the head, with four in the middle stack (rebuilt) and three at each end.

Exposed timber framing with close studding, and some straight tension bracing, is visible at the sides and rear. A single-storey, 19th-century lean-to pentice and gabled porch are situated between the twin projections.

The interior includes chamfered axial beams and a clasped-purlin roof, with face-halfed bladed scarf joints in the wallplates. There's a moulded plank door to the attic and to a closet and room over the porch. A two-panel raised and fielded door with HL hinges leads to the stair off the kitchen (the stair having been dismantled), and decorative H-hinges are present on two tall, narrow panelled doors to "salt cupboards" behind the middle stack on the first floor. An arcaded 17th-century overmantle is found in the southwest parlour.