Belford Hall

Belford Hall is a country house, dating to 1754-56 and initially designed by James Paine for Abraham Dixon. Later, in 1818, wings and a rear entrance were added by John Dobson for William Clark. The house is constructed of ashlar with a Scottish slate roof and is of a Palladian style.

The main central block is two storeys high with a high basement and five bays. Balustraded steps lead to a central doorway in the piano nobile, which is emphasised by a pedimented three-bay section that projects slightly. This section features four giant engaged Ionic columns with two flanking giant Ionic pilasters; similar pilasters define the ends. The basement is rusticated, containing four six-pane sashes. The doorway itself is framed by an architrave with a pulvinated frieze and a semicircular pediment. The main floors have twelve-pane sashes, while the upper floor has six-pane sashes. Eared chambranlé architraves, pediments, and balustraded aprons are found on the outer bays, with a string course linking the pediments. A dentilled cornice tops the block, and the roof is hipped with two tall corniced ridge stacks.

Dobson’s sympathetic wings are three bays long, with one-bay end pavilions. They also have a tall rusticated basement and twelve-pane sashes. The pavilion windows are accented by cornices on brackets, and the pavilions have small six-pane sashes above the cornice, with pyramidal roofs.

The rear entrance features a tetrastyle Ionic porch in antis. Three-storey towers flank the porch, which are themselves flanked by one-and-a-half storey, three-bay sections. The interior was largely gutted during a renovation and survey, but fragments of Paine's original plasterwork remain, hidden behind replacement ceilings. Two marble fireplaces with Ionic columns have been preserved, along with a Dobson staircase with cast-iron balusters, which was to be replaced after restoration. A summer house is located in Easington Parish.