The grounds of Belchamp Hall
The currrent Belchamp Hall is located on the former Elizabethan or earlier Manor house that was possibly erected in
the 15th or 16th Centuries. It is not known who commissioned the manor house but the manor was "owned" by various
families prior to 1611.
For a history of Belchamp Walter in the 15th Century please see my page.
I started some of my research on the local area of Belchamp Walter by looking at the entry on
Historic England.
The description of the hall on the Historic England website is, in my opinion, a little misleading
with respect to the early ownership of the land.
The hall, the subject of the post, is reasonably accurate as it is how they describe.
The former history is a little more complex than:
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The lordship of the manor of Belchamp Water was, at the time of the
Domesday survey, in the possession of Alberic de Vere, in whose family it
remained until the C17. Under the de Veres it was held by a number of
families until in 1539 it came to Sir Roger Wentworth.
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Apart from Water as opposed to Walter, the "possesion" by Alberic de Vere and family until C17 is a little simplistic.
The description below is from the Historic England website. The hall is an excellent location for the filming of a period
drama and was the location of the filming of the '80s Lovejoy TV series.
Top
Description
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LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Belchamp Hall stands in the little Essex village of Belchamp Water, in a secluded rural setting c 6km south of Sudbury close to the
Suffolk/Essex border. The 9ha site sits on the north side of the Belchamp Brook valley, the ground falling slightly from west to east.
It is bounded to the north-west and north-east by Hall Road, and to the south-east and south-west by farmland.
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ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The Hall is approached from the east-south-east, through late C18 stone and rubble gate piers (listed grade II) set opposite the
village church of St Mary. The piers are flanked by short curving walls capped with wrought-iron railings. The 80m long straight drive
leads to a circular carriage drive below the south-east front and surrounds a lawn set with a central sundial.
A second drive enters the grounds from Hall Road, c 100m to the north-east of the Hall, where the boundary is formed by a
brick and rubble wall. Gate piers surmounted by iron heraldic emblems (listed grade II together with the boundary wall)
flank the drive which passes the stable block before turning south-east and south to join the main carriage drive below
the south-east front.
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PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Belchamp Hall (listed grade II*) is a small country mansion built of red brick with a gabled peg-tile roof.
The Hall has two storeys with attics, the entrance front on the south-east having a nine-bay facade with a central stone porch,
surmounted by urns and added in the late C18, projecting over the door. The garden front to the south-west has a two-storey
canted bay window, all that remains of a larger extension added during the late C19. Belchamp Hall was built for John
Raymond (III) in c 1720 to replace an earlier, possibly timber,
C16 manor house.
The late C18 stable and coach house lie c 70m north-north-east of the Hall, beside the entrance off Hall Road.
The two buildings, of red brick with blue headers, are linked by a single-storey block. In the centre of the
stables peg-tile roof is a painted timber open-arched cupola with pyramid roof. These buildings were converted
in the late C20 for office and commercial use.
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GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The entrance facade to Belchamp Hall looks south-east over lawns which flank the main drive.
The parish church of St Mary (of C13 origin) lies c 100m to the east of the Hall (outside the site here registered),
forming an important visual part of the landscape scheme. Beyond the lawn, c 150m to the south-east of the Hall is a
raised terrace, beyond
which lies a sunken garden. This garden, planted with water-loving species around a brick-lined rectangular pool,
is shown in
this position on Walker's map of 1605. The land rises from the pool to the south-east boundary and is planted as
a shelter belt,
this small area having been taken into the garden following a road diversion sometime before 1777 (Chapman and Andre).
The south-west boundary of the gardens is marked by a raised terrace walk running from north-west to south-east for c 200m.
The walk runs north-west/south-east c 40m to the south-west of the Hall, the area in between having been enclosed by
yew hedges
in the late C20 and laid to rose and herbaceous gardens. The terrace walk is terminated at each end by a building: to the
south-east
is a small octagonal rubble and stone garden room (listed grade II) with domed ceiling, while at the north-west end the
remains of a pavilion built of brick and knapped flint stand on a mound below which lie the remains of an icehouse.
A ditch is marked on the 1605
Walker survey in a similar position to the raised walk, the terrace itself, from the cartographic evidence,
probably being created
as part of the garden work undertaken when the present house was built in 1720. To the north-west and north of the Hall the
gardens are laid to lawn whilst to the north-east a further small, late C20 herbaceous garden has been created.
PARK
The small park at Belchamp Hall surrounds the gardens from the south-east to north-north-west and is mainly
composed of woodland with an area of open parkland to the south-west of the raised terrace walk.
Beyond the boundary of the park, c 440m south-west of the Hall, is a flint and
rubble sham castle (listed grade II),
built in the late C19 as an eyecatcher from the terrace walk, to be seen through a controlled gap in the park's
perimeter plantation. Late C20 growth in the woodland has closed this gap.
KITCHEN GARDEN
The walled kitchen garden lies on the north-west side of the stable block, which forms one of its enclosing
walls. The garden contains a rectangular brick-lined pool running from north-east to south-west across the centre,
dividing vegetable growing areas to the north from an orchard and tennis courts to the south. The date of construction
of the walled garden and pool are not clear from cartographic evidence; although both are certainly shown on the
1839 Tithe map, they may be contemporary with the building of the house in 1720.
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References
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P Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex (1763(8) Country Life, 126 (17 December 1959), pp 1206(9;
(24 December 1959), pp 1258-61 N Pevsner and E Radcliffe, The Buildings of England: Essex (1979), p 83 The Essex Journal 24,
(1980) Essex Gardens Trust Newsletter, No 8 (Spring 2000), p 1
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Maps in Essex Archive:
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Maps J Walker, The mannor and demeine lands of Walter Bellcham Hall, 1605 (D/DU 1392), (Essex Record Office) J Chapman
and P Andre,
A map of the county of Essex from an actual survey ... 1777, (Essex Record Office)
Tithe map for Belchamp Water parish, 1839 (D/CT 26),
(Essex Record Office) G Coote, Map of the parish of Belchamp Water, showing the estate of the
Rev J M St Clere Raymond, 1867 (D/DU 1397/3), (Essex Record Office)
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OS Surveyor's drawings, 1799 (Essex Record Office facsimile) OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1897
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Description written: November 2000 Register Inspector: EMP Edited: September 2001
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