Details
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
