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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1769 to 1792 Country house, built 1790s

Monument Types

• BUILDING (Post Medieval to Modern - 1769 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TQ 95 NE 15 :
[TQ 9858 5631] Belmont [NAT] (1) Belmont, Grade I. Built in 1796. The Stables, Grade II, Belmont. (For full descriptions see list.) (2) Belmont, north-west of Throwley. Lord Harris settled at Belmont in 1787. His house bears the date 1792 on a plaque. The architect was probably Samuel Wyatt. The plaque is a help in assessing the east front which is curiously incomplete in form, consisting of three wide bays, with a one-storey colonnade of Ionic columns, and the front door in the left bay. To the left of this is a one-storey orangery dated 1790, where one expects two more bays of the house. (3)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
The description for:-
TQ 95 N THROWLEY BELMONT
4/156 Belmont, with stable courtyard and pump 24.1.67
GV I
should be amended to read:-
House, courtyard and water pump. First house built 1769 for Edward Wilkes, store- keeper of Royal Powder Mills, Faversham. Remodelled and extended c.1787-1792. Unsigned drawings for the rebuilding of Belmont appear to be from the office of Samuel Wyatt and it is possible that the owner Colonel Montresor, a retired engineer with the British Army in North America may have designed the house but engaged Samuel Wyatt as his architectural advisor. Interior work by Basil Ionides. 1930s. Red brick, the main elevations of the house faced with buff-coloured gauged mathematical tiles, with Coade-stone and ashlar details. Slated roofs. The house is placed asymmetrically at the south and south-west corner of the stable courtyard and the internal arrangements set asymmetrically to an axial corridor. Neo- classical styling. Entrance (south front): 2 storeys and attic on plinth with guilloche plat band and modillion eaves cornice to hipped roof. 3 glazing bar sashes on first floor, and 3 tripartite french windows, only the left end one genuine and the main entrance to the house. Set with a verandah of 3 bays on Ionic columns coupled to centre (with Coade-stone capitals), with G full height glazing bar sashes, separated by Doric pilasters, with cornice. Gauged niches to left and right with Coade-stoneswags on plaque over them, one dated 1790. Kitchen buildings in red brick beyond. East front (the display front): 2 storeys and attic on plinths with guilloched plat band and modillion eaves cornice. Two projecting bows left and right with saucer domes and belvederes. 3 glazing bar sashes on each floor in each bow, and 3 on each floor in centre. Over each window a Coade-stone plaque or medallion with swags, putti and emblems of the seasons. The central plaque depicts a figure of India on an artillery bastion studying plans of Belmont, an elevation of which appears in the background amongst palm trees. North front: as entrance front, but with 4 bay verandah of single columns, and bowed projection with tripartite "Wyatt" window, the cast iron balustrade carried across. Single storey range extends to north part of the courtyard, but also containing rooms for the main house. Stable courtyard: of chequered brick and slate to north of house, containing part of surviving 1769 house to south. 2 storeys on plinth with moulded cornice, 5 glazing bar sashes on first floor, 4 on ground floor with central boarded door, with flat hood on pilaster surround. Stables with elliptically arched door- ways and sidelights, echoing the Wyatt window motif of the main house. Coach-house with clock tower and cupola, dated 1792. Entrance to courtyard flanked by octagonal lodges in buff brick, with gauged niches, 1 glazing bar sash to entrance, and panelled door to courtyard. Hand pump attached to west range of courtyard, with wooden box-body, and leaded spout dated 1790, curved handle with knop, and iron water trough. Interior: entrance vestibule, staircase hall and corridor form axis of house. Full height top-lit staircase, with first floor balcony, and second floor balcony reached only from back stairs. Cast iron balustrade. Shallow well niches on the walls enhance the use of the stairhallas a gallery. Screen to upstairs corridor of 2 Ionic columns, in antis with elliptical arch over,and identical blank screen on the opposite wall. This, with simplified details, along with the apse, forms the decorative motif for the whole interior. Main rooms to east of central axis, with drawing room and library occupying the bows of the east front, and internally with apsidal walls, with central dining room. Library with fitted veneered bookcases, again in "Wyatt window" configuration, gilded cornice and moulded frieze, with medallions and plaques on the wallpaper frieze. Spare decorative details elsewhere, light architraves and frieze, wall panelling, marble fire surrounds. Fitted shutters and pierglasses to bowed windows, and fitted wall niches in bedrooms. Study, office and billiard room isolated from main range along east wing of courtyard. Service rooms complete; half-glazed roof on orangery, again with apsidal end walls. Orangery and service wing with series of fine vaulted cellars, ascribed to 1769 house, but quality of design and workmanship is more akin to the Wyatt house. Below the main house runs an original hypocaust central heating system, stoked externally on the north front of the main house. (See Country Life, Jan 27 and Feb 3, 1955; see also BOE, Kent II, 1983, 138-9).
TQ 95 NE THROWLEY BELMONT
4/156 Belmont, with Stable 24.1.67 Courtyard and Pump
GV I
House, courtyard and water pump. First house built 1769 for Edward Wilkes, Storekeeper of Royal Powder Mills, Faversham. Remodelled and extended c.1787-1792 by Samuel Wyatt for General Lord Harris. Interior work by Basil Ionides, 1930s. Red brick, the main elevations of the house faced with buff- coloured gauged mathematical tiles, with Coade-stone and ashlar details. Slated roofs. The house is placed asymmetrically at the south and south-east corner of the stable courtyard and the internal arrangements set asymmetrically to an axial corridor. Neo-classical styling. Entrance (south front): 2 storeys and attic on plinth with guilloche plat band and modillion eaves cornice to hipped roof. Three glazing bar sashes on first floor, and 3 tripartite french windows, only the left end one genuine and the main entrance to the house. Set with a verandah of 3 bays on Ionic columns coupled to centre [with Coade-stone capitals), with 6 full height glazing bar sashes, separated by Doric pilasters, with cornice. Gauged niches to left and right with Coade-stone swags on plaques over them, one dated 1790. Kitchen buildings in red brick beyond. East front (the display front): 2 storeys and attic on plinths with guilloched plat band and modillion eaves cornice. Two projecting bows left and right with saucer domes and belvederes. Three glazing bar sashes on each floor in each bow, and 3 on each floor in centre. Over each window a Coade-stone plaque or medallion with swags, putti and emblems of the seasons. The central plaque depicts a figure of India on an artillery bastion studying plans of Belmont, an elevation of which appears in the background amongst palm trees. North front: as entrance front, but with 4 bay verandah of single columns, and bowed projection with tripartite "Wyatt" window, the cast iron balustrade carried across. Single storey range extends to north part of the courtyard, but also containing rooms for the main house. Stable courtyard: of chequered brick and slate to north of house, containing part of surviving 1769 house to south. 2 storeys on plinth with moulded cornice, 5 glazing bar sashes on first floor, 4 on ground floor with central boarded door, with flat hood on pilaster surround. Stables with elliptically arched doorways and sidelights, echoing the Wyatt window motif of the main house. Coach house with clock tower and cupola, dated 1792. Entrance to courtyard flanked by octagonal lodges in buff brick, with gauged niches, 1 glazing bar sash to entrance, and panelled door to courtyard. Hand pump attached to west range of courtyard, with wooden box body, and leaded spout dated 1790, curved handle with knop, and iron water trough. Interior: entrance vestibule, staircase hall and corridor form axis of house. Full height top-lit stair- case, with first floor balcony, and second floor balcony reached only from back stairs. Cast iron balustrade. Shallow well niches on the walls enhance the use of the stairhall as a gallery. Screen to upstairs corridor of 2 Ionic columns, in antis with elliptical arch over, and identical blank screen on opposite wall. This, with simplified details, along with the apse, forms the decorative motif for the whole interior. Main rooms to east of central axis, with drawing room and library occupying the bows of the east front, and internally with apsidal walls, with central dining room. Library with fitted veneered book- cases, again in "Wyatt window" configuration, gilded cornice and moulded frieze, with medallions and plaques on the wall- paper frieze. Spare decorative details elsewhere, light architraves and frieze, wall panelling, marble fire surrounds. Fitted shutters and pierglasses to bowed windows, and fitted wall niches in bedrooms. Study, office and billiard room isolated from main range along east wing of courtyard. Service rooms complete; half-glazed roof on orangery, again with apsidal end walls. Orangery and service wing with series of fine vaulted cellars, ascribed to 1769 house, but quality of design and workmanship is more akin to the Wyatt house. Below the main house runs an original hypocaust central heating system, stoked externally on the north front of the main house. (See Country Life, Jan 27 and Feb 3, 1955; see also BOE, Kent II, 1983, 138-9) Listing NGR: TQ9858656362 (4)

<1> OS 1:10000 1972 (OS Card Reference). SKE48157.

<2> DOE(HHR) Swale RD Kent Nov 1960 95-7 (OS Card Reference). SKE41204.

<3> Bldgs of Eng (Ed N Pevsner) NE and E Kent 1983 138-9 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37690.

<4> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

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