Ashton House

Ashton House is a house built in the 1820s and 1840s in Weymouth, originally comprising two dwellings. It stands within a short row and is the most prominent of a group of buildings known as Belfield Terrace, situated on the main road connecting Melcombe Regis and Wyke Regis. The house is designed in the Greek Revival style, featuring a central four-bay block with stepped-back bays on either end and a lower range to the right.

The exterior is rendered with a slate roof. The house rises three storeys and a basement, becoming four storeys at the rear due to the sloping site. The central block has a mix of sash windows: twelve-pane and four-pane to the eaves, with a full-width balcony with wrought-iron railing above deep fifteen-pane windows at the first floor level. A 16-pane sash and a plain sash are on the ground floor, while the basement has three-light casements, one enclosed by a cast-iron railing. The left-hand set-back bay has plain sashes and a door. The lower range is notable for a blind window. A bold portico, accessed by five steps with nosings, features paired fluted Doric columns in antis, a full entablature, and a flat roof above a pair of four-panel doors. The main hipped roof has a central ridge stack, with further stacks to the left gable and the rear eaves of the lower range, which incorporates a front parapet. Architectural detailing includes a high plinth, a first-floor moulded band, a plain second-floor band, and a moulded band to the set-backs. The right gable has a low-pitched closed pediment, with two twelve-pane sashes on each level, and a basement entry hatch within the deep plinth. At the rear are four widely spaced sashes at eaves level, above two two-story oriels, flanked by long 24-pane staircase windows, while the lower range has a fifteen-pane window above a blind light and a sixteen-pane sash.

The interior, partially inspected, retains original six-panel doors within moulded architraves, although fireplaces have been removed from the principle rooms. A fine full-height geometrical staircase rises in a semicircular well with deep niches. The open strings have scrolled tread-ends and the stick balustrade includes a wreathed mahogany handrail. A second staircase was not inspected. The basement contains three wide brick-vaulted compartments with cobble floors at the front, separated by a rear transverse passage. The passage has a ceiling supported by a series of closely-spaced (0.15m) iron camber bars incorporating small, recessed bullseye pavement lights, typically in groups of three every meter. The unusual construction of the cellar ceiling remains unexplained.