Brizes Park, Bell House School

KELVEDON HATCH

TQ59NE ONGAR ROAD 723-1/5/440 (West side) 20/02/67 Brizes Park, Bell House School (Formerly Listed as: BRENTWOOD ONGAR ROAD, Kelvedon Hatch Brizes)

GV II

House. C18 said to have been started in 1720, remodelled in late C18, C19 and C20. Converted to a school in 1981. Red brick, slate roof. L-plan with service/stable extensions as rear projecting wings. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. SW front, 9 bays, 2 simple stuccoed string courses over ground and first floors, plain parapet. All windows, real or blind, have gauged brick voussoirs. Central 3 bays section articulates forwards with a pediment with lunate depressed arch above the parapet. Ground floor with central porch, Tuscan, tetrastyle with flat head. Doorway, semicircular, 'cobweb' fan-light and 6-panelled door. 4 windows each side, C20 restored, sashes with glazing bars, 3x4 panes. First floor, central niche with stuccoed key stone and 4 windows each side as before. Second storey - blind central window, 4 windows each side, each sash with glazing bars, 3x2 panes. SE side elevation, 3 fold division. Central part articulated forward with full height arched recess containing large tripartite sash windows with glazing bars on each floor. Ground-floor window flat headed, 1x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes, first floor, segment headed, 1x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes, second floor lunate 'Diocletian' window, 1x2, 3x4, 1x2 panes. To SW end (towards front of house) 2 bays, all windows blind. NE end, ground and first-floor windows sashes with glazing bars, 3x4 panes, second floor, 3x2 panes. NW side elevation 6 bays, 3 fold division, centre section articulated forward. Plain sash windows with glazing bars. Ground and first floors 3x4 panes, 2nd floor 3x2 panes. First and second floor windows SW end blind. Set back service/stable wings have 2 blind arcades with stuccoed key stones and impost blocks presented to the SW front and hipped roofs. S wing C20, flat tiles, N wing slate. INTERIOR: entrance hall with bucrania frieze and Venetian triple arch with coupled columns leading to staircase of imperial type. Stair lit by window with semicircular head, painted glass and hunting figures in C17 costume, said to be imported c1880. Several rooms have late C18 style fireplaces and friezes. The house was bought in 1949 by Hon. Simon Rodney who did much to restore the house to its Georgian appearance. It was frequently visited by Sir Winston Churchill. The stable block and garden wall (qv) form a group with Brizes Park. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Essex: 1965-: 256).

Listing NGR: TQ5698698402