Coleorton Hall

Coleorton Hall is a large hall house built between 1804 and 1808 by George Dance the Younger for Sir George Beaumont, the 7th Baronet. In 1862, a second storey was added by F.P. Cockerell, transforming the original stripped-down Gothic style into a lighter, more picturesque composition. The hall is constructed from tooled ashlar.

The main front has a five-bay asymmetrical facade, featuring a projecting Tudor-style porte-cochere with a vaulted ceiling displaying the Beaumont family arms and topped by a statue of a lion. This leads to a vaulted porch within a full-height canted bay. The ground and first floors have Gothic windows set within blank pointed arches. The second storey is characterised by a sill course and windows expressed as blank dormers. The facade is further embellished with pilaster strips and polygonal turret-like buttresses. The side and rear elevations are symmetrical, with three and four bays of three-light mullion windows with hood-moulds. Second-floor windows are supported by brackets. A two-storey embattled bay and a single-storey dining room with an ornate gable are located to the north of the rear elevation, both later additions.

The interior features a full-height polygonal hall, accessible from the entrance lobby, with pointed arched niches and openings to the ground floor, along with an iron-railed gallery above featuring a four-centred arcaded upper level. The top floor has pointed windows with stained glass to a lantern. A "Beaumont room" contains an ornate painted panelled ceiling, repainted in c.1980. Grecian-style fireplaces and plaster ceilings are present elsewhere, though partially concealed by inserted partitions that are removable.

Coleorton Hall served as the seat of the Beaumont family from around 1426 and represents the third house built on the site. Sir George Beaumont, a patron of the arts and an amateur painter, hosted notable literary figures such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Scott, with Wordsworth composing poems and Scott beginning Ivanhoe at the hall. Sir George was also an art collector and instrumental in the founding of the National Gallery, donating a significant collection to form its early nucleus. The hall is now used as offices for the National Coal Board.

The hall’s setting was ‘improved’ with the assistance of Uvedale Price, embodying elements of the picturesque. The garden front opens to provide a ‘prospect’, with terraces adorned by Grecian urns. A winter garden, formed within an old quarry and featuring high retaining walls, was designed with input from Wordsworth.