Belstead House

Belstead House

A house, now a County Council residential college. The building combines a timber-framed range dating from circa the 16th or early 17th century with substantial extensions and remodelling carried out in 1936 by the architects Harold Hooper and Garrard of Ipswich, working in a Vernacular Regional style. Further extensions were added in the 1980s.

The surviving original timber-framed range comprises about three bays on an east-west axis, situated immediately to the left (south) of the existing entrance hall. This represents only a fragment of what was probably a larger house; the western end was likely no more than three bays originally, as indicated by weathered studding on the external wall, and may have been a cross-wing to the main structure.

The 1936 remodelling entirely reconstructed and greatly enlarged the house. A new entrance hall was created to the right (north) of the old range. The 1936 extensions include a parallel cross-wing to the left (south) of the original range, containing an office at the front, a library partly within the old range, and a stairhall with stairwell at the back. Behind this is a large room (now lecture room 1, formerly a drawing room) and a smaller adjoining room (now common room), with a post-1936 loggia on the west and south sides. Service rooms occupy a long wing to the right (north) of the entrance hall, which includes small cross-wings and a servants' staircase. This service wing was extended in the 1980s with a dining hall at the north end to accommodate the building's present use as a residential college. Despite these changes, the house retains much of its former country house character.

The exterior presents two storeys with attic. The long asymmetrical east front displays a complex fenestration pattern of 1:1:2:1:1:2:1 bays. A gabled cross-wing projects to the left, with the gable end of the original range beside it. To the right of this is a recessed entrance porch, followed by the long service range with two projecting gables. All windows are 20th-century casements with small leaded panes. The recessed porch is lined with 1936 timber framing and contains a 20th-century ledged door in a moulded frame. The cross-wing has a large red brick lateral stack on its right-hand side. The left (south) return presents an asymmetrical gabled elevation with similar fenestration. The west elevation shows projecting ranges to the right, with the service range set back on the left and the 1980s dining hall at the extreme left (north) end. Plain tile roofs with gabled ends and red brick stacks from 1936 complete the exterior. The whole building is now rendered with panels of stippled pargetting.

The interior is largely of 1936 creation. The surviving original range features heavy gunstock-jointed posts and a common rafter roof, which appears to be intact (though reinforced) beneath a later roof covering. The ground floor of this range contains two ovolo-moulded ceiling beams in the library. Above, in the chamber, is a moulded plaster ceiling of either extensively restored or reused 17th-century parts. This ceiling consists of four panels divided by intersecting beams with alternating roses and fleur-de-lis ornament and acanthus leaf bases at intersections. The panels have central bosses with radiating acanthus leaves; the fields are later work with incised lines radiating to semi-circles containing small leaves. Panelling in this room and on the ground floor is of 17th-century type but appears to be largely 20th-century reproduction. Similarly, the moulded beams in the entrance hall are probably 20th-century, though the moulded beam (with roll, cavetto and ribbon mouldings) in the rear room (now common room) is late 16th or early 17th-century and is reused as a lintel. The former drawing room (now lecture room) at the back contains a reused 18th-century wooden chimneypiece with an eared architrave and carved festoons, but the ceiling dates to circa 1936. The 1936 staircase is executed in 18th-century style with turned balusters and acorn finials to the newels. At the top of the stairs in the attic, ovolo-moulded wooden windows are reused as a screen.

The house was originally a farmhouse, known as Hill House when remodelled and extended in 1936. Major Quilter purchased the property circa 1901. Its use as Judges' lodgings presumably commenced after the Second World War, prior to conversion to its present use as a County Council residential college.