Castle Map

Palace

Belton House

England · 17th century

Founded
c. 1700
Style
Restoration style
Heritage status
Grade I listed building
Location
Belton and Manthorpe
Coordinates
52.9431°, -0.6178°
Links
OpenStreetMap · Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Official website ↗Wikipedia ↗
Belton House in England
Photo: Wehha · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1687 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of Carolean architecture, said to be the only truly vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the Tudor period. It is considered to be a complete example of a typical English country house; the claim has even been made that Belton's principal façade was the inspiration for the modern British motorway signs which give directions to stately homes.

For about three centuries until 1984, Belton House was the seat of the Brownlow family, which had first acquired land in the area in the late 16th century. Their heirs, the Cust family, were created Baron Brownlow in 1776. Despite his great wealth Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet, chose to build a comparatively modest house rather than one of the grand Baroque palaces being built by others at the time. The contemporary, if provincial, Carolean style was the selected choice of design. Nevertheless, the new house was fitted with the latest innovations, such as sash windows for the principal rooms, and followed the latest thinking on house-planning, in seeking to separate those parts of the building that were for the use of the family from the areas where servants carried out their domestic duties.

Successive generations made changes to the interior of the house which reflected their changing social position and tastes, yet the fabric and design of the house changed little.

Text adapted from “Belton House” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Belton House ranks #779 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #66 of the 397 mapped in England. Founded c. 1700, it is older than 22% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 7,498 times in the last 60 days, more than 92% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Sheffield, 75 km away. See how England compares in the castle statistics.

Castles nearby

More castles in England