- Heritage

Beamsley Hospital

The inscription above the archway as you enter the Hospital announces that it was founded by Margaret, Countess of Cumberland in 1593, and completed by her daughter, Lady Anne Clifford. Queen Elizabeth gave her consent to the foundation in a special charter. In this the need for a Hospital or Almshouse was explained: the Countess had seen that there were “many old women in and around Skipton, decrepit and broken down by old age, who were in the habit of begging for their daily bread”…

Beckford's Tower

Beckford’s Tower was built between 1825 and 1827 by William Beckford (1760-1844) to designs drawn up by H.E. Goodridge. It was built by Beckford as a daily destination of retreat from his main house, No. 20 Lansdown Crescent. He would retire to the sumptuously furnished Tower to read, appreciate the many fine objects and paintings he had amassed and contemplate the view from his belvedere…

Belmont

Belmont is a fine, early example of a maritime villa, a new building type that sprang up in the second half of the 18th century with the rising popularity of sea bathing and holidays by the seaside. Our research has shown that the house was built before1784 by Samuel Coade. This is the date he transferred the house to his niece, Mistress Eleanor Coade (1733-1821), one of the most intriguing figures in 18th-century architecture…

Bramble Villa East

The Rev. Hudson Heaven built the original Bungalow in 1893, partly as an overflow for Millcombe and partly as accommodation for Mr and Mrs Ward, the coachman/gardener and cook. Visiting Heaven children with their nurse would stay and eat here whilst Mr Heaven used the sitting room as his study. At that time, the Bungalow was connected to Millcombe by telephone…

Bramble Villa West

The Rev. Hudson Heaven built the original Bungalow in 1893, partly as an overflow for Millcombe and partly as accommodation for Mr and Mrs Ward, the coachman/gardener and cook. Visiting Heaven children with their nurse would stay and eat here whilst Mr Heaven used the sitting room as his study. At that time, the Bungalow was connected to Millcombe by telephone…

Bridge Cottage

Bridge Cottage, although itself dating only from the 1820s or ’30s, is typical of the kind of building which must always have existed in Peppercombe: smallholders’ and labourers’ cottages, built of the most locally available materials, developing over the centuries from humble single-storeyed dwellings into decent two-storeyed cottages such as we have here. The materials most readily to hand were rubble stone, cob (mud mixed with straw) and thatch, and it is of these that Bridge Cottage is built, with brick for the chimneys, made as tall as possible to provide a draft in this sheltered place…

Brinkburn Mill

Brinkburn Mill stands within the ancient precincts of Brinkburn Priory. Part of the medieval Priory wall, now only a few feet high, runs between the Mill and the river, on the south side. The main gateway to the Priory, of which remains were discovered while the restoration of the Mill was in progress, lies buried just to the east. The Augustinian canons of Brinkburn were endlessly pestered by Scottish raiders, and needed a stout wall and a strong gatehouse…

Bromfield Priory Gatehouse

The history of Bromfield Priory Gatehouse falls into three main periods. The first of these is medieval and to it belongs most of the lower, stone, part of the building; the arch itself and the sides of the gate passage, and the walls to the left (or north) of it. The walls south of the gate arch are later, but may contain medieval masonry - narrow windows, or loops, in the gate passage show that there were originally rooms both sides of it…

Bush Cottage

Bush Cottage is built of timber that analysis shows was felled in 1548. It stands on the landholding known as The Bush (variously the ‘estate’ or ‘piece’), sheltered by a remnant of the ancient Forest of Wyre and facing south-east towards the Clee Hills among ancient field patterns. It lies in the township of Chorley, part of Stottesdon parish and its very survival indicates that this was a sturdy yeoman’s house of some quality…

Big St John's

Against the battlemented wall dividing St. John’s Valley from the ‘Common’, there used to be a flat-roofed battlemented farm shed. It has been used at different times as a stable, a hen house, a cow shed, a piggery and a hay store…