Bessie Surtees House is the name of two merchants' houses on Newcastle's Sandhill, overlooking the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...

, that were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though commonly referred to solely as Bessie Surtees House, the property actually consists of three distinct properties; Bessie Surtees House, Milbank House, and Maddison House. These names were given to the buildings by their 20th-century owner Lord Gort. The buildings are a fine and rare example of Jacobean domestic

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

. An exhibition detailing the history of the buildings can be found on the first floor. The site is also home to the North East regional branch of

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The earliest record for the house on this site dates from 1465, when the house is recorded as being sold by Robert Rhodes, a local lawyer, to John Belt.

Bessie Surtees House

The house is best known as the scene of the elopement of Bessie Surtees (

Elizabeth Scott, Countess of Eldon Elizabeth "Bessie" Scott, Countess of Eldon (c.1754 – 28 June 1831), formerly Elizabeth "Bessie" Surtees, was the wife of John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon. Biography She was the daughter of Aubone Surtees, a banker of Newcastle upon Tyne, a ...

) and John Scott, who later became

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

. The house was divided up and sublet in the 18th and 19th centuries, until it was purchased by John Clayton in 1880, who also purchased the next door Milbank House. It was restored in 1930 by SR Vereker, later Lord Gort, who employed an engineer named R.F. Wilkinson to install 17th-century fixtures taken from properties about to be demolished. Newcastle City Council purchased the house in 1978. They leased it to English Heritage in 1989. In July 2009 it was targeted by

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

who extensively spray-painted the roof with the tags "LG", "GRIM" and "KAME". When Historic England was formed in 2015 it assumed the lease of the property, which it maintains to the present day as its North East of England office. The house is a popular attraction during The Late Shows and

Heritage Open Days Heritage Open Days (also known as HODs) is an annual celebration of England's history and culture that allows visitors free access to heritage sites and community events that are either not usually open to the public, would normally charge an ent ...

which take place annually, and allow members of the public to see the areas of the house usually not open to public view.

Milbank House

The brick-fronted Milbank House dates to the same period as Bessie Surtees House, and was also originally timber framed. In 1741 its owner Robert Carrick completed the process of altering its facade to what was at the time a modern Georgian brick frontage. From 1741 until 1757 the building operated as a coffee house.

Bessie Surtees House

Milbank House

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