Bewerley Old Hall, also known as the Priest's House, or in the early 20th century as Tudor House, is a historic building in

Bewerley Bewerley is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. The village is 0.5 mile south of Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale. The parish includes the part of the Pateley Bridge built-up area west of the River Nidd, where Pat ...

, a village in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, in England. The house was built by Father Hicks in the late 16th or early 17th century, as the village's manor house. In 1681, it passed to the Inman family, and then in 1774 to John Yorke. In 1815, a new hall was built, and the old hall became the house of its gardener. To its east side were two large walled gardens, one with box hedges in the Elizabethan style, which was removed in 1975. The house was

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in 1952, but views differ on its merits:

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

research records describe it as "of little architectural merit", but

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

described it as a "fine C17 house". The house has a

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

core, and is in

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for ...

, with a moulded

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

, and a stone slate roof with

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

copings, and shaped kneelers. There are two storeys and three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

, and an additional later two-storey porch with a hipped roof. The ground floor of the porch is open, with two Tuscan columns, and it contains

chamfer A chamfer ( ) is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fur ...

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed windows. The doorway has a chamfered quoined surround, and the windows are recessed, with chamfered mullions and

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin , lip), drip mould or dripstone is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a '' pediment''. This moulding can be ...

s. Inside, the porch ceiling has a relief of a woman in 17th century clothing, while the house has original fireplaces, and much early plasterwork.

References

{{coord, 54.07800, -1.75714, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Houses in North Yorkshire Timber framed buildings in Yorkshire Grade II* listed buildings in North Yorkshire Bewerley

See also

References