Lying down in historic hall 'like stargazing'
BBCA tourist attraction is encouraging visitors to take a different perspective by lying down on its 210-year-old floor.
Belsay Hall has temporarily installed a stack of cushions so visitors can "lie down and look up" at a ceiling considered one of the finest in England, according to English Heritage.
The pillar hall in the Greek-inspired building, which was built between 1811 and 1817, mimics a Mediterranean courtyard but has a glass roof to keep out the worst of the Northumberland weather.
Visitor David Turner says: "It was a bit of a struggle for me, but once I got down it was just like stargazing."
The 66-year-old says he often stargazes in the countryside near his home in Glasgow.
"It's quite relaxing and the columns either side tend to make you focus on the ceiling," said David, who was on a four-day trip to Northumberland with his wife Marion.
Designer Sir Charles Monck fell in love with Greek architecture when on an extended honeymoon there and wanted to bring it back to the North East.
Belsay Hall's pillar hall is the clearest example of that, incorporating Doric columns on the ground floor and Ionic columns on the first.
"Obviously our weather isn't as kind as that of the Mediterranean so he decided to build a covered courtyard," says Belsay Hall's cluster manager Charlotte Woolley.
"And then we've got a covered light well which keeps the pesky Northumberland weather out."
English HeritageEnglish Heritage, which manages the hall, is also encouraging people to lie down and look up at other locations, but Woolley says that Belsay is unique.
"The other four sites have quite ornate ceilings, Bolsover star chamber has beautiful intricate artwork," Woolley says.
"Belsay is very stark, it was designed as such and built that way so it's something different.
"Rather than looking at the plasterwork or the paintings, you're really looking at the architecture."
