Belsay Hall. Photo by Harry Rowland, 1968.


Interior of Belsay Hall. Photo Northumberland County Council, 1956.

Belsay Hall, Grade I. Country House, 1810-17, by and for Sir Charles Monck with John Dobson. Greek Doric style. 100ft square with lower kitchen wing on north side. Two storeys, 7 x 6 bays. On stylobate of two steps.
Interior: central hall, based on atrium of a Greco-Roman house, surrounded by Ionic columns on the ground floor and Greek Doric columns above. Top lit by glazed coffered ceiling. Large tunnel vaulted cellars. (1)

Foundations begun in August 1807. Building completed by 1815. Belsay is one of the landmarks of later Georgian reawakening of interest in architecture of Classical antiquity, it was the first house whose design was based on the domestic architecture of the ancients. Belsay is remarkable for its mathematical exactitude and proportions, severity and precision of execution. (2)

A fireplace in one of the ground floor rooms bears tiles from the Tjallingii works in Harlingen, Netherlands, produced between 1870 and 1901. The motifs bear mainly maritime scenes. (3)

NZ 0883 7836: The Hall (NAT). (4a)

Belsay Hall (included in Interim Statutory List as Belsay New Castle) 1810-1817 by Sir Charles Monck and John Dobson. Ashlar, Greek Doric style, square plan, raised on a podium of three steps. Entrance front has two giant Greek Doric columns in antis. Two storeys of simple sash windows divided by giant Doric pilasters, six bays each side. Interior has fine central hall with Ionic colonnade on ground floor and Roman Doric colonnade on upper floor; marble fireplace in library. (4b)

NZ 0883 7836: A Greek Doric style country house designed in 1806-7 by Sir Charles Monck and constructed between 1807-17 by Sir Charles Monck and John Dobson. It is a two storey building, square in plan with a projecting kitchen wing on the north side. Construction is of locally quarried ashlar with a Lakeland slate roof. The house and its grounds are in the care of English Heritage and open to the public. (4c-d). An archaeological survey of part of the grounds was made by RCHME field staff in April 1986. (4c-e)

Belsay Hall is one of the most important neo classical country houses in England and was unfurnished when it came into the care of English Heritage. The original furnishings which had been commissioned by the Middleton family who built Belsay Hall had been sold at auction. In 1996 the main rooms of the house were refurnished with the work of contemporary craftspeople and designers through a partnership between English Heritage, Northern Arts and Northumberland County Council. (4f)

From 1810-17 Sir Charles Middleton Monck built a new Belsay Hall in Greek style, away from the castle, which remained habitable. The quarries were converted into gardens and the whole are landscaped. Other buildings in the castle area include barns, stables, kennels and a folly on the hill.(4g)

The course of history expressed by the medieval stronghold followed by a Jacobean mansion, and then by the classical building required by later wealth and taste appears in the sequence of buildings at Belsay, each a superb example of its period. Here the imposing tower house, probably the finest in the north of England, is 14th century. Adjoining is the Jacobean mansion of 1614. Behind are the fine 18th century stables (NZ 07 NE 29). The latter was superseded in its turn by the Doric House constructed by the young John Dobson from the designs of the owner made during a honeymoon in Greece. Belsay Hall was completed in 1817. To improve the layout of the gardens and grounds the village was removed and rebuilt in an Italian style on its modern site. The deep quarries from which the stone was cut were converted into one of the finest Gothic gardens in England. (4h)

Oblique aerial photographs showing Belsay Hall. NMR.(4i,j,k)

The present Hall was designed by Sir Charles Monck. Born 1779 he became the heir after the death of his two older brothers. On his father's death in 1795 he inherited everything and the following year to inherit his grandfather's estate (in Lincolnshire) also he adopted his surname of Monck. He married his cousin Louisa Cooke of Doncaster and they honeymooned in Greece. This trip influenced Sir Charles and developed his passion for the Greek style. On his return from Greece he set about designing a new house. He cleared away the village that lay to the south-west of the castle and rebuilt it much further east. He made a new lake to the south.
He died in 1867 and was succeeded by his grandson Arthur (his own son died in 1856). Sir Arthur changed his surname from Monck back to Middleton.
During the second world war the hall was occupied by the Army. After the war the family returned, but by 1962 Sir Stephen Middleton, the 9th Baronet, decided to move to Swanstead, a smaller property on the estate. The estate was transferred to the guardianship of the state in 1980. It came under the care of English Heritage unfurnished and with the proviso that it should continue to be presented that way. (4l)

General association with HER 10234 (Belsay Castle), HER 28139 (WW2 trenches), HER 28138 (WW2 trench); is referred to by HER 28140 (military buildings). (4)