Capheaton Hall, near Wallington, Northumberland, is an English country house, the seat of the Swinburne Baronets and a childhood home of the poet

Algernon Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

. It counts among the principal gentry seats of Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building. The house, which was built for Sir John Swinburne, 1st Baronet in 1667-68Dated contract, noted in Colvin, sv. "Robert Trollope". by

Robert Trollope Robert Trollope was a 17th-century English architect, born in Yorkshire, who worked mainly in Northumberland and Durham. His work includes: * Eshott Hall, about 1660 * Capheaton Hall, 1667-8 * Cliffords Fort, North Shields, 1672 * Callaly Cast ...

of Newcastle, is a provincial essay in

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...

, of local stone with giant pilasters on high bases supporting sections of entablature dividing the main front into a wide central bay and flanking bays, under a sloping roof with vernacular flat-footed dormers. The estate was improved with a model farm in Gothic taste, designed by

Daniel Garrett Daniel Garrett (died 1753) was a British architect who worked on the Burlington Estate, Culloden Tower, Raby Castle, and Banqueting House. History Garrett started as a clerk of works, then in 1735 set up his own practice in the North of England ...

for Sir John Swinburne, ca 1746, one of the earliest examples of the Gothic Revival. The north front was rebuilt for

Sir John Swinburne, 6th Baronet Sir John Swinburne, 6th Baronet (6 March 1762 – 26 September 1860) was an English politician and patron of the arts. Life He was born at Bordeaux. The Swinburne family of Capheaton Hall was traditionally Roman Catholic and Jacobite, but at ...

in 1789-90 by a local architect, William Newton. The house stands in rolling parkland in the manner of

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English lan ...

. The naturalistic setting of Sir Edward's Lake south of the house was designated a Site of Nature Conservation Importance in 1983 for the wintering and breeding wildfowl it harbours, as well as the fen and carr vegetation that has developed round its margins. The linear estate village of Capheaton (population 50), built as a planned model village in the late eighteenth century, is sited on a ridge west of the Hall. The Capheaton archives are at the Northumberland Record Office.

Notes

References

Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840' ...

, ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840,'' 3rd ed. 1995 *{{NHLE, num=1154285 , desc=Capheaton Hall , accessdate=30 October 2019
The Swinburn family of Capheaton HallCapheaton Estate Village Keys to the Past
Country houses in Northumberland Grade I listed buildings in Northumberland 1668 establishments in England