Belmont Hall, Cheshire
| Belmont Hall | |
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| Coordinates | 53°18′04″N 2°31′11″W / 53.3011°N 2.5198°WCoordinates: 53°18′04″N 2°31′11″W / 53.3011°N 2.5198°W |
| OS grid reference | SJ 654 783 |
| Built | 1755 |
| Built for | John Smith Barry |
| Architect | James Gibbs |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Designated | 4 March 1969 |
| Reference no. | 57568 |
 Location in Cheshire
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Belmont Hall is a country house one mile (1.6 km) to the northwest of the village of Great Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The house stands to the north of the A559 road. It is included in Simon Jenkins' England's Thousand Best Houses, and as of 2013 is occupied by Cransley School.
The site for the house was bought in 1749 by John Smith Barry. He commissioned James Gibbs to design the house, which was completed in 1755. Gibbs died in 1754, therefore the house's construction was probably supervised by a local architect. Some of the architectural features of the house are inconsistent with Gibbs' work elsewhere, and it is considered by de Figueiredo and Treuherz, and by Hartwell et al. that changes to the design, including the two-storey bow windows, were made by the executant architect. When John Smith Barry died in 1784 the house was inherited by his son James Hugh Smith Barry, an art collector. At his death in 1801 the house was sold to Henry Clarke, who sold it to the Leigh family. As of 2012, the estate was still in the ownership of the Leigh family, the house being let to Cransley School, and part of the surrounding land being used as a registered site by the Camping and Caravanning Club.
Belmont house is constructed in brick with stone dressings on a stone plinth, and it has a slate hipped roof. It is designed along Palladian lines, with a central block of living rooms, separate side pavilions for offices, stables to the west and kitchens on the east. The central block has a symmetrical front, it is in three storeys, and has seven bays. The central doorway is flanked by rusticated stonework. It has a fanlight with a round arch, above which is a pediment. The lateral two wings have semicircular two-storey bay windows, which are in a different style from the rest of the house. The central pane of each window is octagonal. The other windows in the lower two storeys are 12-pane sashes, and those in the top storey are 12-pane casements. Around the top of the house is a moulded cornice, a plain parapet, and a central three-bay pediment containing the coat of arms of the Smith Barry family and their motto. The right pavilion is in two storeys and three bays with 12-pane sash windows. It has a pedimented gable facing the side of the house, and a hipped roof with a cupola. The left pavilion has been rebuilt in a simpler form. Each pavilion is joined to the house by a wing wall containing a central round-arched pedimented doorway and two 12-pane sash window, and is topped by a vase balustrade.
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