Description

BOMERE HEATH C.P. UPPER BERWICK
SJ 41 NE
6/104 Upper Berwick
29.1.52
GV II*

Small country house. Circa 1690, probably for Richard Betton (VII).
Service wing added in the late C18, and further alterations and additions
of the late C19. Red brick with painted sandstone dressings. Hipped
plain tile roof, with C19 fishscale bands and lead flat at rear. Two
storeys and attic over basement. Plinth with moulded stone top,
chamfered quoins, stone plat band, moulded wooden modilllion eaves cornice,
and central 2-bay steep triangular pediment; oculus in tympanum with moulded
architrave and star-pattern glazing bars. Pair of dormers with 2-light
wooden casements, wooden cornices, and steep triangular pediments. Pair of
large square brick stacks on return ridges with oversailing tops. 6 bays;
boxed glazing bar sashes with painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads with
shaped lower edges. Central small-paned half-glazed door (2 lower flush
panels) with moulded architrave, and flanking 4-pane sashes with moulded
architraves. Late C19 brick porch with moulded plinth, wooden frieze,
cornice with alternating modillions and quatrefoils, and pedimented gable
with moulded blind oculus in tympanum. Half-glazed door with 4-part
rectangular overlight and flanking narrow sashes. 4-bay return fronts;
glazing bar sashes of differing widths, some painted in imitation. Pairs
of hipped dormers with 2-light wooden casements and moulded wooden eaves
cornices. Right-hand return front with C19 one-storey 2-bay hipped-roofed
addition to left, and left-hand return front with C19 flat-roofed square bay
to right. Painted imitation sashes to rear too. Service wing at angle to
rear. Red brick with plain tile roof, hipped to rear. Two storeys.
Dentil brick eaves cornice, external brick lateral stack to rear and external
brick end stack. Three-window front to west, with 3-light segmental-
headed wooden casements. Interior of house: circa 1690 three-flight square-
well oak staircase, rising to attic, with landings, panelled closed string,
barleysugar balusters, moulded handrail, and square newel posts with moulded
caps and circular pendants, the foot newels formed from groups of 4 balusters.
Late C17 two-panelled door to right of staircase on ground floor. Left-and
right-hand ground-floor rooms with late C19 moulded cornices and other details.
Old staircase to the basement with moulded handrail. Reused moulded beam in
ceiling of basement to right. First-floor and attic not inspected. Upper
Berwick was the family home of the Bettons from the C14 to the end of the C19.
The simple fireplace surrounds mentioned by Forrest were not in situ at the
time of survey (January 1987). H.E. Forrest, Some Old Shropshire Houses and
their Owners (1924), pp. 101-105.

Listing NGR: SJ4721315914

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17540940

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)