Mount Oswald
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Mount Oswald is a manor house in Durham,
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. The house, which is now
Durham County Council Durham County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of County Durham (district), County Durham in North East England. The council is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, bein ...
's The Story museum, 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 surviving parkland associated with the house is including in Durham County Council's Local List of Historic Parks, Gardens and Designed Landscapes.


History

The manor house was built for John Richardby, a London merchant, in 1800. It was bought by Thomas Wilkinson (1752-1825), a former mayor of Durham, in 1806 and it then passed to the Rev Percival Spearman Wilkinson (1792-1875), in 1828. The Rev Percival Spearman Wilkinson commissioned Phillip Wyatt to expand the house in the
Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...
in 1830. Mount Oswald then passed to the Rev Percival Spearman Wilkinson's son, Percival Spearman Wilkinson JP (1820-1898), before being acquired by the North Brancepeth Colliery Company in the 1890s. The house was acquired by North of England Estates (a business owned by the McKeag family) in 1934: North of England Estates operated the Mount Oswald estate as the Durham City Golf Club until 1967, when the golf club moved to Littleburn, and then operated it as a commercial golf course. The property was then acquired by the property developers, Banks Group, for residential development in January 2014. In August 2014 Banks Group sold part of the site to
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
who had ambitions to use it for accommodation for 1,000 students. The project was procured by Durham University under a
private finance initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...
contract in August 2018. The construction works, which were undertaken by
Interserve Interserve was a British construction and support services business based in Reading, Berkshire, which went into administration in 2019 and was formally wound up in 2022. In 2019 the group generated revenue of £2.2 billion and had a workforce ...
at a cost of £105 million, saw
John Snow College John Snow College is a Colleges of Durham University, constituent college of Durham University. The college was founded in 2001 on the university's Queen's Campus, Durham University, Queen's Campus in Stockton-on-Tees, before moving to Durham, ...
relocating from Rushford Court, and South College, a completely new college, being created on the Mount Oswald site in September 2020. In June 2019
Durham County Council Durham County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of County Durham (district), County Durham in North East England. The council is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, bein ...
revealed plans to move the county archives from County Hall to a new history centre, which was also intended to accommodate the Durham Light Infantry Collection, in the manor house at Mount Oswald. The project, which envisaged Banks Group transferring the manor house to the council for a nominal sum, was granted planning consent in September 2020. In March 2020 Banks Group also applied for planning permission to convert the gatehouses into residential properties. The Story museum opened to the public in June 2024, incorporating the County Durham Archives, the Historical Environment Record for the county, the Durham Light Infantry collection, the Local Studies collection and the Historic Registration collection.


References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in County Durham Buildings and structures completed in 1800