Bewley Court

Bewley Court is a Grade I listed manor house dating from the 14th to early 15th century, restored and extended around 1920 by Sir H. Brakspear. The building stands near Lacock on Bewley Lane.

The house is constructed of rubble stone with ashlar dressings and stone slate roofs, arranged in an L-plan with two storeys. The core comprises a 14th-century hall range with an early 15th-century south front extension and an east end cross wing, apparently early 15th-century but possibly standing on a 14th-century core. The north end and flanking rear court ranges were added in 1920.

The hall range features a coped west gable and west stack (rebuilt 1920), with the west wall formerly timber-framed. The south front is notable for its battlemented, near-symmetrical design with a centre 2-light cross window, buttresses on each side, and a south-west angle buttress. An unusual enclosed stair in the original hall leads from the upper end to a chamber over the porch. A projecting porch to the right, flush with the cross-wing gable, is battlemented with a south-west angle buttress, a cusped 2-light upper window, and a broad Tudor-arched entry in a moulded surround with raised piers and brattished cornice. The inner doorway is moulded with a Tudor arch and studded plank doors.

The cross wing has a coped gable and a stone oriel with Perpendicular-style lights, supported on a buttress between single lights; the oriel is a 1920 reconstruction. A south-east angle buttress marks the corner. The east front is apparently 15th-century but features a 2-window range of 3-light flush-mullion windows of 18th-century type flanking a fine corbelled side-wall stack with a circular shaft, dated by Brakspear to the 14th century. Buttresses flank each side of the stack, with small ground-floor windows flanking its supporting pier. A ridge stack marks a former end wall. A 2-window range beyond, with ridge and end stacks, dates from around 1920 but incorporates re-used chamfered recessed-mullion windows. A single-storey range spans the north end. The rear court features built-out fronts of around 1920 in 15th and 17th-century style, reusing old stonework.

The interior contains an outstanding 3-bay great hall with raised 2-tier cruck trusses on carved brattished corbels. The brattished wall-plate is decorated with carved roundels on curved windbraces. The hall was originally of 2 bays with a 2-storey west end and timber-framed partition; the fine moulded archways in the present centre of the side walls were originally at the dais end of the hall. The original hall features unusual recessed wall panels with horizontal upper mouldings linked to the corbels of the centre truss. A 20th-century north wall fireplace stands at the north end, while at the west end, in the former 2-storey section, a resited Tudor-arched fireplace is positioned. A 20th-century stone screen based on fragmentary evidence marks the east end.

The screens passage has a coved cornice and two fine moulded doorways to the cross wing and a moulded north-end doorway. The south-east room is largely reconstructed, while the north-east room, formerly the kitchen, has a large Tudor-arched fireplace and 17th-century incised panelled doors on each side. From the hall centre, a south-side arch leads to the foot of the stairs, with a moulded stair arch to the left and a moulded doorway to the right into the chapel (reconstructed 1920). The stairway has a moulded intermediate arch to absorb thrust from the hall truss and a moulded upper doorway with an original door. A wind-braced roof covers the porch. The cross wing features a fine wind-braced roof, exposed in the south room, and a moulded stone arch to the oriel. Other rooms contain resited fireplaces, including a circa 1700 example in the cross wing and additional resited fireplaces in the north wing.

The house belonged to the Collard family in the 13th century and to T. Calstone around 1400. An inventory of T. Calstone dated 1417 (P.R.O. E 154/1/31) suggests the house already possessed its present plan at that date. In the 16th century it was owned by the Sharington family of Lacock. H. Brakspear surveyed the house prior to restoration for Colonel R. Cooper and published plans and photographs in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, volume 37 (1912), pages 391-399.