Beeley Hilltop House

Beeley Hilltop House is a manor house dating from the early 17th century, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of coursed squared gritstone with ashlar dressings and quoins, and has a stone slate roof with coped gables. The building features ashlar ridge and gable stacks, as well as a lateral stack. The house has a truncated H-plan, with gabled projecting wings and a recessed centre part on the west elevation. The left-hand wing has a 5-light recessed and chamfered mullion window, a 2-light window above (formerly a 4-light with a transom), and a 3-light window in the gable, all with horizontal hoodmoulds. The right-hand gable has a 4-light recessed and chamfered mullioned and transomed window with a major mullion and hoodmould. A 19th-century glazing bar sash window is located on the first floor, set beneath the earlier, broader hoodmould. A 3-light recessed and chamfered mullioned window with a hoodmould is also found in this gable. The recessed centre part features irregular fenestration. The rear elevation, in an L-shape, has three moulded bands on its south face, extending across the gabled east face. The east face contains two 4-light recessed and chamfered mullion windows, a similar 3-light in the gable, and a round-arched doorway with key and impost blocks, a blind single light above, and a 3-light window above that. The south face includes a central doorway with a moulded surround, a 3-light square section flush mullion window to the left, and a 4-light recessed and chamfered mullion window to the right. Two similar 4-light windows are positioned above. The other elevations all have 2, 3, or 4-light windows. A wall is attached to the south-east, alongside ashlar gate piers with moulded capitals and ball finials. Internally, the dining room has a chamfered segmental arched chimneypiece with a moulded inner fireplace. The drawing room retains 17th-century panelling and a moulded stone chimneypiece. The staircase is largely renewed. A bedroom in the north-west angle retains 17th-century panelling with fluted pilasters and frieze, a moulded stone chimney piece, and a small doorway to the bathroom with a trompe l’oeil painting simulating deeply moulded panelling. Another bedroom in the north-west angle contains a carved Jacobean overmantel flanked by fluted pilasters. A bedroom in the south-east angle features 17th-century panelling, a moulded plaster frieze and ceiling with strapwork patterns, and a moulded stone chimneypiece with the carved arms of James I in the overmantel and moulded cornice. The bedroom in the south-west angle continues the plaster ceiling and includes a moulded stone chimneypiece and a panelled overmantel with moulded brackets and cornice.