Bellaport Old Hall

Bellaport Old Hall, Norton in Hales

This farmhouse is the surviving remnant of a large house originally built on a medieval moated site in the early 17th century. The structure was largely demolished in the 19th century, leaving only the portion now designated.

The building is constructed of coursed stone and red brick with stone dressings, rendered and colour-washed, with a plain tiled roof. It follows an L-shaped plan, with a ground floor and staircase hall serving the east-west wing, and two ground floor rooms in the north-south wing.

The south front is rendered and displays 19th and 20th century glazing including four-light and two-light casements, a gable to the far left, and a 20th century gabled brick porch left of centre. A single-storey block extends to the right. The west front is colour-washed brick with mullioned windows and stone surrounds on both floors. A blocked three-light window survives at ground floor level, while two three-light windows on the first floor have had their mullions removed and now contain 20th century wooden casements. At ground floor level stands a chamfered stone door surround that has been raised in height, now containing a glazed 20th century door topped by a 20th century cement lintel. A 19th century projecting dairy wing extends at the far left.

The east front features a projecting wing at the left, partially walled with coursed stone blocks. The adjoining range is of 17th century brick with patches of early 19th century replacement brickwork. A two-light window with stone surround occupies the first floor, formerly mullioned but now containing an inserted 20th century window. Two and three-light 20th century casements have been inserted at ground floor. The roof line across this front has been raised by approximately two feet. At the far right is a 20th century projecting addition with catslide roof. The north gable end retains 17th century walling to its lower portion but has been rebuilt in 20th century brick above, with two inserted ground floor windows.

The interior contains substantial ceiling beams to the ground floor, with end stops in the south-west facing room and ovolo mouldings to the edges of the south-east room. The entrance hallway on the south side preserves portions of 17th century panelling, including oval panels with pyramid bosses, though this panelling appears to have been rearranged with some later insertions. Within the 19th century dairy wing, two lights of a mullioned window from the original east front are exposed. The roof structure reuses much timber from the former roof including sizeable purlins and common rafters. The trusses comprise kneed principals joined by collars in the southern wing and queen post trusses in the rear wing.

Bellaport Old Hall was the home of a branch of the Grosvenor family from the Middle Ages. Around 1600 the estate passed briefly to the Mainwarings of Ightfield, and after 1634 to William Cotton, a draper of London. The hall originally stood within a square medieval moat. In the later 16th or early 17th century it was remodelled to occupy the full width of the site. A formal garden was laid out within the moat in front of the house, with half the space devoted to a parterre. The building was partially demolished in the 19th century, and by 1927–28 the surviving part was occupied as a farmhouse. The medieval moated site can still be discerned.