Building Belton

Transcriptions of the 19th century building accounts found in the Lincolnshire Archives

Building invoices circa 1830-40

Transcriptions: Ian Ross. Belton Research Group of the following entries

BNLW 2/1/1/17 through to BNLW 2/1/1/25 inclusive

Comments on the accounts

Estimate for Earl Brownlow’s Lodge Office at Belton Aug 1821 BNLW 2/1/1/17

This is the north lodge at the main entrance to present day Belton. The comment,

Where John Mathis now lives

suggests that there was an earlier building on this site.

4-6 of cube oak posts in front and canted edges & Labour @ 6/-

seems to match the four chamfered wooden posts at the front supporting the roof forming a colonnaded verandah. The south side has a C19 wrought-iron bell frame and canopy on the eaves. Building costs ~£11,000 today.

An example building with York stone roofing and rustic ashlar construction.

Stroud’s estimate of building Record Room November 1821 BNLW 2/1/1/18

A Detailed estimate for Building of Record Room for the Right Honble Earl Brownlow at Belton House. Finding all Materiel including Masons, Bricklayers and Plumbers work.

A muniment room existed during the 6th Baron Brownlow's ownership. Archivists visited it circa 1960. They describe deeds in 427 numbered bundles in 34 numbered tin boxes on shelves. Unnumbered wooden and tin boxes with documents lay on the floor. A comment is made that some of the records have sustained considerable damage from woodworm.

The estimate has 856 feet of rustic and plain ashlar stone. This implies a building ~29 feet square if freestanding. It included a fireplace and a lobby and York stone roofing. That the materials cost over three-fold more than the North Lodge suggests a substantial, well finished structure intended to be seen by the Brownlows. A Jonathan Stroud is mentioned in the NT Heritage Records as designing Keepers Cottage also known as Park House near Old Wood, after 1815. It was demolished sometime before 1971.

As of this time we are unable to locate this Record Room if it still exists. Images show two fireplaces of demolished Belton buildings whose function is unknown.

Simpson & Whaplate Timber Hull 29th of October 1830 BNLW BNLW 2/1/1/20

Winter, Simpson & Whaplate, timber merchant’s, North Side Old Dock, renamed Queen’s dock in 1954 and now a park. They sold the 1st Earl Brownlow, several thousand feet of planking for £399. What this large amount of timber was used for is unknown.

Cassells' Carpentry and Joinery (1907) report Baltic Yellow or Red Deal as the best deal for building purposes. Shipped from the Russian port of Petersburg. Other timbers supplied were Riga white deal from Latvia, Christiana deal from Sweden used for best joinery, Memel in formerly, East Prussia, now Klaipėda, Lithuania.

Hull is still a timber trading city stretching back from the 14th century.

The timber travelled by John Plew’s Humber Sloop (example, left) from Hull to Gainsborough. Until 1840 Gainsborough and the Trent below the town formed part of the Customs port of Hull.

There, it was transferred to a Trent Boat for shipment to Newark on Trent. The Trent ketch was built specifically for commercial transport along the Trent. They were capable of carrying cargoes of up to 40 tons between Newark and the Humber estuary. A variation on the Humber keel, these craft had a sharper stern and were usually 74ft x 14ft with a 32 inch draught for use on the shallower River Trent. Fully laden they only had a freeboard of 9 inches. The journey from Gunthorpe Lock to the seaport at Hull took about 14 hours.

Details on the Trent ketch. The timber cargo arrived at John Armstrong Jackson (1775-1845) Jackson & Son, wharfingers and merchants, who operated from Northgate wharfs. From there the load must have gone by horse and cart along the Great North Road to Belton.

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