Improving on history

A beautifully preserved Georgian house reveals the influence of pattern books in the practice of English architecture. John Goodall admires its revival and the addition to it of two well-judged new wings

Beckside House, Lancashire The home of Dr John Martin Robinson

BECKSIDE—as the name suggests —always rings with the sound of running water. The stream that gives the house its name also encloses the garden and helps bestow on the whole property a sense of intimacy and enclosure. Set on the edge of Barbon village, Beckside is approached from the side, the main front revealing itself suddenly to the visitor as they walk down the short drive. At a first sight, it answers the popular ideal of a Georgian gentleman’s seat, with a fine symmetrical façade, strikingly handsome without being pretentious. On acquaintance, the house is exactly what it first promises to be, but it proves to be more noteworthy, interesting and complex as well.

The figure who has made it so is the owner, John Martin Robinson, a name familiar to readers of COUNTRY LIFE as a regular contributor to the magazine’s architectural pages for nearly 50 years. He purchased Beckside in 1986, at a time when it was on the verge of dereliction, and has turned it into a physical manifestation of his expertise in—and love for—Georgian architecture.

In the years since, he has not only lovingly restored the historic fabric of the building, replete with an outstanding series of original fittings but enlarged it as well, with wings. These give the house architectural presence and have been so cleverly conceived and executed that they might easily be mistaken for elements of the original design (Fig 1).

Dr Robinson has also researched the history of Beckside and much of what follows is indebted to his work, as well as that of Prof David Watkin, who wrote up Beckside when it looked very different (COUNTRY LIFE, September 10, 1998). One happy product of these expert investigations is a remarkably full picture of the social history of the house and its owners. Such an impression of a building on this relatively modest scale—and in this part of the country—is a rarity. It is a reminder of how rich and fascinating the underlying history of such buildings can be.

A house is first documented on the site of Beckside in the late 17th century, at which time it was owned by a yeoman family, the Garnetts. Some elements of this earlier building may have been preserved within the service range to the west of the present house when it was built by one George Turner and his wife, Anne. No documents relating to the new building are known to survive, but the Turners’ initials—GAT— and the date 1767 appear cut into the lintel of the central window above the front door.

Turner owned six farms, as well as property in nearby Kirby Lonsdale. He must have been prosperous in order to purchase and construct Beckside, but he was not outstandingly rich, so, as did many figures in his situation across the country, he turned to a local builder to create a genteel new house. The figure he chose was probably John Hird of Cartmel, a joiner who came to describe himself as an ‘architect’ and whose documented work bears technical comparison to that at Beckside. In particular, the internal decoration makes repeated use of an unusual St Andrew’s Cross motif that is found on the gate piers of Witherslack Church, Cumbria, which Hird remodeled in 1768.