Hitts House And Front Walls, Wagon Stones And Continuations To East And West

Hitts House is a detached house located on Whitcombe Road in Beaminster, dating from the late 17th century and the 19th century. The building features coursed lias stone walls topped with a moulded stone cornice and a clay tile roof with stone gable copings. It has renewed brick stacks at both gables and stands two storeys high with attics. The façade includes three windows with 3- and 4-light ovolo-stone mullions, iron casements with leaded lights, and tension bars with scroll terminals. There are dormers with 2-light casements and a central front door framed by stone moulded jambs and a very depressed-arch head. The door itself is wooden and has six panels, topped by a wooden shell-hood featuring a carved scallop shell and oak-leaf corners, supported by wooden brackets from around 1700.

Inside, the main staircase, located on the left side, is late 17th century, made of oak with turned balusters and a narrow beaded handrail. It has a square newel post with flat pyramidal caps. There is also a service staircase in the right gable wall that spirals half to each floor, leading up to the attic with wooden treads. The roof structure includes chamfered principals, chamfered cambered collar beams, and two sets of through-purlins from the 17th century. The house underwent early 19th-century remodelling, which included reeded door surrounds and the insertion of elliptical arches to the stairs and front corridor. A bow window is present on the rear wall.

The front walls and gate piers date from the 18th century, constructed of lias rubble on a stone plinth with stone copings that ramp at either end. The square ashlar gate piers feature moulded cornices and ball finials, with small iron gates. There are seven wagon stones leading to the lane. The listed walling extends approximately 40 meters east of the house, standing 12 feet high, made of rubble stone and stone-coped with slight ramping. The listed walls also continue to the west of the house along the street and turn up the back lane to the southwest for about 100 meters.