Hamsterley Hall is an 18th-century

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 ...

at Hamsterley,

Rowlands Gill Rowlands Gill is a village on the north bank of the River Derwent, in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. The Gibside Estate is near the town. History With the coming of the Derwent Valley Railway in 1867, Rowlands ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, England. It is a

Grade II* 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 estate at Hamsterley was given, in 1762, by Sir John Swinburne Bt to his younger brother

Henry Swinburne Henry Swinburne (1743–1803) was an English travel writer. Early life and marriage He was born at Bristol on 8 July 1743, into a Catholic recusant family: he was the fourth son of Sir John Swinburne, 3rd Baronet of Capheaton, Northumberland ...

. In 1769, Henry carried out substantial alterations to the then existing house to create the present two-story, four-bayed

castellated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

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 ...

-style mansion. Swinburne died in 1803 and in 1806 the property was sold to Anthony Surtees. His son

Robert Smith Surtees Robert Smith Surtees (17 May 180516 March 1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer, widely known as R. S. Surtees. He was the second son of Anthony Surtees of Hamsterley Hall, a member of an old County Durham family. He is re ...

, a novelist, acquired the estate in 1838. He was

High Sheriff of Durham This is a list of the high sheriffs of County Durham, England. In most counties the high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. In the Palatinate of Durham the officeholder was appointed by and was accountable to the Bishop of ...

in 1856. He died in 1864, leaving his estate to his daughter Eleanor, who married John Gage Prendergast Vereker, 5th

Viscount Gort Viscount Gort is the title of two peerages in British and Irish history. Gort is a small town in County Galway in the West of Ireland. The original title was in the Peerage of Ireland and is extant. A viscountcy with the same title as the Irish ...

in 1885. Their first son

John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, (10 July 1886 – 31 March 1946) was a senior British Army officer. As a young officer during the First World War, he was decorated with ...

VC was succeeded in 1946 by his brother Standish Vereker, 7th Viscount MC who lived at Hamsterley until his death in 1975.

References

Newcastle University:SINE, photographs and English Heritage description of listed building
* ''A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland Sir Bernard Burke 4thEd, Pt2(1863) p1460 Surtees of Hamsterley. Google Books Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed buildings in County Durham Country houses in County Durham