Belchamp Hall is a

Queen Anne-style The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the Queen Anne Revival architecture in the United Kingdom ...

country house in the parish of

Belchamp Walter Belchamp Walter is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately west of Sudbury, Suffolk and is 35 km (22 miles) north-northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. It is near Belchamp St Paul and Belchamp O ...

, Essex, near Sudbury, Suffolk, England. It is a privately owned

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It is constructed of red brick in two storeys in a double-pile plan form with a gabled peg-tile roof with attics. The front facade has nine bays with a parapet. The central bay projects and is surmounted by a pediment. The house was built c.1720 in place of an original Elizabethan house and offers good views across the valley of the Belchamp Brook to the village of Bulmer. The interior panelling is Elizabethan or Jacobean, probably from the original building. Numerous family portraits by well-known artists decorate the walls. The surrounding parkland, significantly reduced in size since 1741, is itself

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

History

The estate and original house was bought from Sir John Wentworth by John Raymond in 1611. Members of the Raymond family have lived in either the previous or the present hall since then.

Oliver Raymond Oliver Raymond (c.1605 – 1679) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1654 and 1656. Raymond was born at Belchamp Walter, , the son of John Raymond, who bought Belchamp Hall in 1611. He was admitted at Trinity College, ...

, the son of John Raymond, lived in the previous hall in the 1600s and was Member of Parliament for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in the

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the H ...

in 1654 and re-elected in 1656 for the

Second Protectorate Parliament The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons. In its first sess ...

. Samuel J. St. Clere Raymond died at the present hall in 1900 after inheriting it 6 years previously. He was succeeded by Samuel Philip St. Clere Raymond and he by Michael Murray John Raymond, M.C. He was succeeded by Charles Francis Valentine Raymond in 1998. The hall was used as the setting in the 1980s and 1990s for the fictional "Felsham Hall" in the TV series ''

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

''. It is now available as a wedding venue.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Country houses in Essex Grade II* listed buildings in Essex Buildings and structures in Braintree District