Capheaton Hall, near Wallington,

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, is an

English country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

, 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 many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

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

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

, 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 for Sir John Swinburne, ca 1746, one of the earliest examples of the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

. The north front was rebuilt for

Sir John Swinburne, 6th Baronet Sir John Edward 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 baronets, Swinburne family of Capheaton Hall was traditionally Roman Catholi ...

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

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

. 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, 1600–18 ...

, ''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