The theme of this month’s Heritage Open Days revolves around architecture, so this is a great opportunity to reveal details of a long lost building from north Berkshire.

Belmont House was built in c.1763 as the new manor house for the manor of Wantage. It was demolished just 50 years later, after the death of its owner Samuel Worthington. In our collections there is a fascinating sale catalogue for building materials from the house, which is a very rare example of its kind (document reference: D/ECO/E1/22). The purchasers were responsible for taking down their purchased items at their own expense – a crafty way of getting your demolition job done free! The roofs were to be left until last, to avoid damaging other purchasers’ property before they had paid for it. 

Everything was sold off in a grand auction of 160 separate lots at the Alfred’s Head Inn in Wantage on 21 November 1812. The first lot put up for sale was the stone slating on the roof, then the gutters and the roof itself, described as a ‘capital oak and fir roof’, complete with beams and ceiling joists, which was sold for £49. Another early lot was a cupola and dinner bell, which fetched £6. The window sills, sashes and frames were sold in sets of three. Other nice lots included marble chimney pieces from various rooms. 

Because the catalogue sets out the lots by room, we can get a really good idea as to what this long lost house was like inside. It had two main floors plus attics and cellars. There was a bow, or curved section, in the building, occupied by the dining room and one bedroom. There were four bedrooms, two with dressing rooms, upstairs. Downstairs were a breakfast parlour, with a mahogany cupboard, a dining room, the butler’s pantry, and a large closet. The kitchen, larder, dairy, brewhouse and servants’ hall had a separate roof, and probably extended on a single floor at the side or rear of the house. The kitchen had a stone floor and an iron boiler. 

Once all the fittings were sold and removed, the brickwork of the house itself and the walled yard were sold off. This included a ‘very handsome’ portico with steps of Portland stone and other stone decorations including two vases and balls. The door had six panels and a fan light. 

In the paved yard were out-buildings including a stable and coach house. In the walled garden were two summer houses (the older of which was added to the sale at the last minute), a tool house for the gardener’s work, and at least one privy (the catalogue has a listing for the ‘best privy in the garden’ – presumably there were other less salubrious ones as well). 

The site was used as a nursery garden for many years and then redeveloped. A later building on the original estate was Wantage Cottage Hospital, built in 1886, which was to be renamed Belmont House after it ceased to be a hospital. But what a shame the original Belmont House has been lost to posterity!