Monument record MDR7740 - Green Hall (site of), Green Lane, Belper

Jedediah Strutt II built a new house on the site of an older building - Green Hall. The pre-1790s house is unknown, but is speculated to have been a small stone-built yeoman's house possibly associated with the Manor. The new house was begun in 1794 with William Strutt FRS as the architect. It had a seven bay front with the central three bays breaking forward under a pediment. Additions were made in the Regency period. Whithurst's ideas concerning central heating and piped water were implemented. The house was set in a small park, now encroached upon by the town. By 1891 the house was no longer occupied by the Strutt family, becoming eventually a hospital during WWII. Demolished after the war it became a car park, but the converted lodge house and stables remain. (1) Green Hall was erected in 1810 as Jedediah Strutt II's private residence. The architect is thought to have been William Strutt. It is not certain when the Strutt family left Green Hall, but certainly by 1888 it had become a private preparatory boarding school for young gentlemen. The hall was requisitioned as a military convalescent hospital during World War One. At some point in the mid 1920s a school clinic was held here. After World War Two the hall was divided up into flats and eventually demolished in the late 1950s, after which the site became a car park. (2) Prior to the development of the car park site, two trenches were excavated in July 2002 within the known area of Green Hall. A survey of the retaining wall around the site, elements of which are contemporary with Green Hall, was also undertaken. The trenches exposed structural elements of the ground floor at the north end of Green Hall, and extensive remains of structural elements forming the cellars. Material recovered from the deposits associated with these structures dated wholly from the modern period, with the exception of a single sherd of medieval pot recovered from the construction cut of the exterior wall of Green Hall. (3)