Description

ST 96 NW MELKSHAM WITHOUT BEANACRE
(east side)

2/175 Beechfield House

5.6.79

GV II

Large house, now hotel. Circa 1870. For Richard Keevil.
Ashlar with rusticated quoins. Welsh slate hipped roof.
Italianate square house with 3-windowed service wing to rear. 2-
storey symmetrical 3-window front. Central rusticated porch has
segmental pediment with carved tympanum. Semi-circular headed door
and side windows have carved keystones and pilasters with capitals.
Triple light sashes to either side have pediment with carved
tympanum, over decorative panel. Windows have semi-circular heads
and keystone and are separated by columns with carved capitals.
String course. First floor windows similar, but with triple light
over porch and 2-light to sides, all having round arched hood
moulds with terminals and keystone. Rusticated centre has
pediment over; open pediments to either side window. Dentile
cornice. Window treatment of left and right returns similar; left
return has 4-light canted bay with segmental pediment, and 4
grouped narrow sashes beneath pediment with cornice and finials,
over. Right return includes rusticated chimney breast and first
floor balcony with balustrade. Plain 3 storey, 3 window service
wing to rear.
Interior: Entrance hall has round arched openings with keys and
imposts, to rooms. Central open-well stair. Moulded cornices
and friezes and ribbed patterned ceiling to front right room.
Particularly notable is painted glass in windows above porch,
comprising 6 oval panels depicting rural scenes, and in door panels
and surround of right return entrance and front door, of floral and
vine-leaf motifs.
House built for a local gentleman farmer, Richard Keevil whose
initials are carved in the pediment over the canted bay to left.
(Kelly's Directory 1872).

Listing NGR: ST9034265665

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26489265

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

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)