Bellaport Old Hall

Reasons for Designation

* The building contains a significant quantity of early-C17 material, including rare brickwork, stone window surrounds and some panelling and beams * The building is the survivng part of a prominent house owned by a succession of powerful local land-owning families * Bellaport Old Hall sits within a moated site which can still be discerned.

Details

NORTON IN HALES

1573/0/10012 Bellaport Old Hall 20-DEC-07

II The farmhouse was formerly part of a large house, built on a medieval moated site in the early C17, which was largely demolished in the C19. MATERIALS: Coursed stone and red brick with stone dressings with render and colour-wash and a plain tiled roof. PLAN: The building is L-shaped, with a ground floor rooms and a staircase hall to the wing which runs east-west and two ground floor rooms to the north-south wing. EXTERIOR: The south front is rendered and has C19 and C20 glazing with four-light and two-light casements, a gable to far left and a C20 gabled brick porch to left of centre. Extending at right is a single-storey block. The west front is of colour-washed brick and has mullioned windows with stone surrounds to both floors. There is a blocked three-light window to the ground floor and two three-light windows to the first floor which have had their mullions removed and contain C20 wooden casements. Also at ground floor level is a chamfered stone door surround which has been raised in height and now contains a glazed C20 door above which is a C20 cement lintel. At far left is a C19 projecting dairy wing. The east front has a projecting wing at left which is partially walled with coursed stone blocks. The range at right of this is of C17 brick with patches of early-C19 replacement brickwork and there is a two-light window to the first floor with a stone surround, which was formerly mullioned and now contains an inserted C20 window. To left of this and to the ground floor are inserted two- and three-light C20 casements. It is apparent that the roof has been raised by approximately two feet across the extent of this front. At far right is a projecting C20 addition with catslide roof. The north gable end has C17 walling to its lower body and has been rebuilt with C20 brick above. The ground floor has two inserted windows. INTERIOR: There are substantial ceiling beams to the ground floor with end stops to the south-west facing room and ovolo mouldings to the edges of the south-east room. The entrance hallway on the south side contains portions of C17 panelling, including oval panels with pyramid bosses. This panelling appears to have been re-arranged with some later insertions. Inside the C19 dairy wing two lights of a mullioned window are exposed, in part of the original east front. The roof structure re-uses much timber from the former roof including sizeable purlins and common rafters. The trusses take the form of kneed principals joined by collars to the southern wing and queen post trusses to the rear wing. HISTORY: Bellaport Old Hall was the home of a branch of the Grosvenor family from the Middle Ages. In around 1600 the estate passed briefly to the Mainwarings of Ightfield and after 1634 to William Cotton, a draper of London. It was partially demolished in the C19. It stood within a square medieval moat. In the later C16 or early C17 the hall was remodelled, by which time it occupied the full width of the site. A formal garden was laid out within the moat in front of the house, with half of the space being given over to a parterre. A large part of the house appears to have been demolished in the C19, and by 1927-8 the surviving part was occupied as a farm house.

SOURCES: Paul Stamper, A Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire, 1993, p.127; Mrs. F. Stackhouse-Acton, Castles and Old Mansions of Shropshire, 1869, p.38 [with sketch].

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION Bellaport Old Hall is designated for the following principal reasons:

* The building contains a significant quantity of early-C17 material, including rare brickwork, stone window surrounds and some panelling and beams * The building is the survivng part of a prominent house owned by a succession of powerful, local, land-owning families * Bellaport Old Hall sits within a moated site which can still be discerned.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

503712

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stamper, P, Historic Parks and Gardens of Shropshire, (1996), 127
Stackhouse Acton, F, The Castles and Old Mansions of Shropshire, (1868), 38

End of official list entry

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