Building record 14006 - Beeston Towers

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 55808 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

House, now public house and restaurant. Nineteenth century with extensive early twentieth century additions. Timber framed with rendered brick additions. Three storeys with tower of four storeys. Entrance front: Central portion of two storeys with third storey added in early twentieth century. Similar single storey wing at left with early twentieth century storey above and mid/late nineteenth century wing at right. Central portion of three bays with chevron-patterning to ground floor. Door at left with cambered lintel and projecting porch to right of centre with moulded decoration of nineteenth century date. Three four-light mullioned windows, each with a transom. Coved jetty to first floor which has decorative quatrefoils to lower row of panels of small framing and chevron patterning above. Two coved oriels at left with five-light mullioned windows, each with a transom. Five-light window to right of these. Coving to second floor with decorative brackets, quatrefoils, and quarter circles to both rows of small-framing. Window of eight lights at left with mullions and a transom. Similar window of seven lights to right with two transoms. Each window has a gable over with decorated small framing and decorated bargeboards. Octagonal lantern to ridge at left with copper spire of double pitch. To the left is the two-storey wing. This has a rendered plinth and five and three-light mullioned windows to left and right respectively. The first floor has four-light mullioned windows at right and left with a projecting jettied central portion supported on decorated figurehead brackets which contains a four-light mullioned window with a transom and a circular window above. Octagonal belvedere above this with heavy moulded posts to the corners with arched openings between and an ogee dome above with a weather vane. To the right of centre is a short single-storey wing connecting with the mid/late nineteenth century two-storey rendered wing which has two ground floor bays and three first floor three-light casements and a gabled projecting wing at the right with decorated timber framing to the gable and decorated bargeboards. At the left is a tower with hipped roof. The rear central block has a recessed bay at left with a tripartite ground floor window of four lights with two to either side, all mullioned with a transom. Five-light first floor window above. Jettied second storey with window of seven by three panes with decorated quarter circles to the gable and decorative bargeboards. To right of this the ground floor has two four-light windows with mullions and transoms and a porch at right with quatrefoil decoration. There is a coved jetty to the first floor which has two coved oriel windows of five-lights, each with a transom. The second floor window is of eight lights with mullions and two transoms. Decorative framing to gable above which has nineteenth century decorated bargeboards.

<2> Langston B, 2017, Wild Boar Hotel, Beeston (formerly Beeston Towers) Historical Research (Unpublished Report). SCH8298.

Beeston Towers appears to have been built as a private residence for John Naylor, probably in 1886 (he first appears in the electoral registers for Beeston in 1887). Ordnance Survey plans and a photograph suggest that it was extended at some time between 1903 and 1909. The Inland Revenue valuation survey from 1909-11 did not provide any further information.

After John Naylor’s death in February 1923, the property was instructed to be sold, although we have no indication that this was by public auction, and no sale catalogues have survived.

By 1928 it had become Heathcroft College for Boys, and by 1934, The Towers Girls’ School and Kindergarten. A search of surviving building plans between 1923 and 1934 found no applications for alterations in connection with these changes of use, although it is apparent that many plans are missing, including all those dating from 1926.

<3> Various, Britain From Above, EPW0194321 to EPW019435 (Web Site). SCH8299.

Oblique aerial photographs of Beeston Towers taken in October 1927.

<4> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.128-9 (Book). SCH7059.

'…Exuberant timber framing for the Naylor brothers c.1895. The central section is enthusiastically jettied and richly timbered with herringbone and different sorts of quatrefoil. Big mullioned and transomed windows with ornamental leading….top floor is a single big room additionally lit by an octagonal lantern. Much crude sculpture, including the brothers oddly carrying mason’s tools. Lower and less exciting ranges extend at both ends…’

<5> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses, p.215 (Book). SCH785.

'…An extravaganza in the Cheshire half timbered style like a bad dream of Little Moreton Hall…The plainer stables, of the early nineteenth century, belong to a former house, and the service wing is also simpler…’

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ5559, 1898 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

First map to depict the house.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ5559, 1910 (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

First map to depict the outbuildings/stables.

<8> Kelly's Directories Ltd, Various, Kelly's Directory of Cheshire, 1934, p.64 (Book). SCH6841.

Towers (The) Girls’ School and Kindergarten (Mrs EA Capp, proprietress).