The building, described by one source as "like a bad dream of Little Moreton Hall",[2] is timber-framed, with additions in rendered brick.

John worked for some years as a merchant and in 1871 he and his brother Robert decided to undertake a walk of about 1300 miles from the top to the bottom of the United Kingdom.

[7] The brothers are credited with making the first journey from Land's End to John o' Groats and are still frequently mentioned in walking and cycling guides today.

[9] In his introduction to the book, John Naylor said: "It was a big undertaking, especially as we had resolved not to journey by the shortest route, but to walk from one great object of interest to another, and to see and learn as much as possible of the country we passed through on our way.

We were also to abstain from all intoxicating drink, not to smoke cigars or tobacco, and to walk so that at the end of the journey we should have maintained an average of twenty-five miles per day.

He died in 1923 and the house was put on the market.Mrs Ethel Amelia Gapp opened a boarding school for girls at Beeston Towers in the 1930s.

[5] In 1922 she married Maurus Percy Joseph Gapp who became a science teacher at Ripon Grammar School.