Bell Hall

Bell Hall is a double-pile Carolean house, dated 1680 above the doors, with later additions and alterations, including an 19th-century kitchen wing to the right. It is attributed to John Etty for Sir John Hewley. The house is constructed of pinkish-orange brick with ashlar dressings, a rendered basement, and a slate roof. It is two storeys high with a basement and attic, and consists of a five-bay main block with three-bay returns, and a recessed single-storey, single-bay wing. Quoins are present.

The ground floor has a basement, and the windows are 2-light mullion windows with casements, each with a cyma reversa hood. An ashlar band runs along the ground floor. A central flight of steps, featuring cast-iron boot scrapers, interrupts the basement and leads to a pair of C19 glazed double doors with an 8-pane overlight, set within an eared architrave, pilastered doorcase with acanthus consoles supporting a broken segmental pediment containing an early 20th-century sundial. 12-pane sashes are present to the ground and first floors, with moulded sills and flat red rubbed brick arches, each with an ashlar keystone to the ground floor. The window bays project slightly. A moulded first-floor band projects as a cornice over the windows. Lead rainwater heads and fall-pipes are also present, as is a timber cornice. The roof is hipped with a central well, featuring three pedimented dormers with 6-pane sashes.

The left return is similar, with a late 19th-century central flight of steps surmounted by earlier ball finials and urns, leading to an 8-fielded-panel door in a similar surround. The rear is similar and contains no door. The right return has two original windows to the first floor.

The interior is largely original and includes bolection moulded panelling in most rooms. The first-floor sitting room contains mainly 17th and 18th-century paintings to the panels; the ground-floor study has two 17th-century over-door paintings. A framed newel staircase has onion-on-vase balusters, while a rear dog-leg service staircase has vase balusters. The entrance hall contains an Elizabethan overmantel, partly brought from Deighton Hall around 1890, and later 17th and 18th-century fireplaces, including an overmantel to the ground-floor left-hand room, with carved fruit and foliage, reputed to be by Etty and brought around 1750 from a house in Saint Saviourgate, York. Many rooms have embellished cornices. 6- and 8-panel doors are present throughout, and the ground floor windows have shutters. A priest's hole is located within the green bedroom.