Belmont Hall

Belmont Hall is a country house of exceptional architectural and decorative importance, now partly used as a school. Built in 1755 with an initial design by James Gibbs (though altered during construction), it represents a sophisticated example of mid-18th-century English country house architecture.

The main structure is constructed of stone-dressed Flemish bond brown brick with a hipped slate roof. The principal elevation is a symmetrical composition of three storeys with seven windows, featuring a recessed screen wall and pavilion to each side. A plain stone plinth runs beneath the building, with stone bands marking the first storey cill, first floor, and second storey cill levels. A moulded stone cornice supports a flat three-bay pediment bearing the coat of arms and motto LEGES JURAQUE SERVE of the Smith Barry family; the parapet (now rendered) has projecting stone coping.

The centrepiece comprises a six-panel door with fanlight (now lacking glazing bars) set within a plain, slightly projecting single-storey pedimented case of painted rusticated stonework. Flanking the door are 12-pane sashes to the hall in eared and shouldered architraves. To the left and right are round two-storey bay windows (in header bond with moulded stone cornices and four-course parapets) containing three 12-pane sashes per storey in eared and shouldered architraves with distinctive octagonal central panes in each sash (comparable to Barlaston Hall, Staffordshire, designed for Josiah Wedgwood). The bay windows are contemporary but not by Gibbs. The second storey between the bays has three 12-pane sashes in eared and shouldered architraves, with the central window pedimented and those to the sides featuring entablatures. The third storey displays seven squarer 12-pane casements in eared and shouldered architraves without entablatures. Symmetrically placed brick chimneys complete the composition.

Each flanking screen wall contains a central round-arched doorway in shouldered and eared timber architrave within a pedimented case of rusticated stone, with two recessed 12-pane sashes in round-arched recessed brick panels flanking each porch. A six-panel door occupies the right porch; the left door has been removed. Vase balustrades are present, though the portion above the right bay of the left screen has been removed.

The right pavilion (formerly the kitchen wing) rises two storeys with three windows per storey, featuring 12-pane sashes in plain stone architraves. A pedimented gable faces the main house, and a cupola sits at the junction of the hipped graded grey slate roof ridges. The left pavilion has been rebuilt in simplified form as a gymnasium.

The left end elevation of the main block shows three window recesses per storey, blank except for the central window to the third storey. The right end elevation features a short round-arched small-pane fixed light to the lower landing and a basket-arched small-pane sash to the upper landing of a secondary stair. A 19th-century room was added to the lower storey behind the screen in the right court.

A damaged late Georgian balustrade fronts the forecourt with urns on piers and pairs of panelled gateposts in each return, abutting the inner corners of the pavilions.

The garden front (to the rear) lacks projection or recession. It displays lengthened 15-pane sashes to the first storey, their cases accommodated in recesses in the plinth, and 12-pane recessed sashes with rusticated keystone lintels and projecting stone cills to the second and third storeys. A central door to the garden is set in a painted stone Gibbs surround, though it is narrow and clumsily executed.

The interior justifies the building's highest designation, particularly for its exceptional plasterwork and joinery. Diagonal stone flag floors run through the hall and stair hall; oak boards cover other lower storey rooms. Six-panel doors (most with fielded panels and shouldered architraves with pulvinated entablatures) are found throughout; one door to the stair has been replaced with a four-panel version. Moulded skirtings, dado rails, and embrasures with shutters are consistent features.

The hall features a round-arched panelled doorway to the stair with an ornamental key. A good rococo ceiling and ornate cornice crown the space. Two doors open from each side of the hall. The chimneypiece displays painted stone with a head of Bacchus surrounded by vines, grapes, fruit, nuts, and foliage in a shouldered architrave; rococo plaster wall panels complete the decoration.

The front drawing room (left) is treated more lightly than the hall but features excellent rococo wall panels and ceiling. Its chimneypiece supports classical figures flanked by flowers, foliage, and fruits. A fine ornamental panel with Chinese birds is a notable detail. The rear drawing room, now more modest, formerly displayed tapestries.

The study (right of the hall) is richly decorated with carved mouldings to door panels and architrave, a carved skirting and dado rail, and corner pilasters to the window bay. A pedimented overmantel with naturalistic flowers, foliage, and fruit ornament stands above the fireplace. A coved cornice decorated with a delicate festoon pattern and a plain ceiling complete the scheme.

The rear right room features an inserted oak-panelled dado and a heavy marble fireplace with a mantel on flower-decorated pilasters and consoles. Its ceiling has been replaced with square panels punctuated by rose ornaments at intersections. The late Georgian room in the right wing contains a blocked fireplace with two putti-heads supporting the mantel.

The principal staircase is a hardwood open-well open-string stair of three flights with carved brackets, moulded wreaths, and a ramped rail carried on two column-on-vase balusters per step. Polished hardwood dado, a cornice on consoles, and rococo wall panels (including an outstanding stucco portrait medallion between two windows) surround the staircase. A rococo ceiling crowns the composition.

From the landing, a short corridor leads to a secondary dog-leg stone stair (right), which rises through four flights from the first to third storey. This staircase features an oak rail on iron balusters, a round-arched fixed light to the lower half-landing, and a basket-arched sash to the upper half-landing.

The dressing room above the hall has a coved cornice and an iron fireplace with a neo-classical group of three female figures and a child. The mantel sits on an ornate architrave.

The front bedroom (left) features a rococo ceiling on an ornate coved cornice and a replaced fireplace. The rear room left has been altered to accommodate a staircase to the third storey and pupils' lavatory. The front bedroom (right) displays a frieze and cornice; its mantel is supported on console-pilasters with classical figures in frieze panels. The rear room right has an ornate mantel with frieze and cornice. A room in the right wing has been altered to provide a staff lavatory but retains its frieze and cornice.

The third storey contains no features of particular architectural interest.