Windlestone Hall is a mid-16th century Elizabethan country house, heavily rebuilt in 1821 to form a Greek revival stately home, situated near
Rushyford,
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
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The Hall sits within 400 acres of designed parkland. 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 ...
.
[ English Heritage: Images of England, photograph and architectural description]
/ref> As of 2022 it is back in private family ownership, with the surrounding estate maintained and conserved by a dedicated heritage charitable trust.
History
Early history
The Eden family who held the manor of Windlestone in the 17th century were Royalists during the English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, and Colonel Robert Eden who had served in the King's army, was obliged to campaign for the return of his confiscated estate. Following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, his grandson, also Robert Eden, was created a baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
in 1672, (see Eden baronets).[''The Baronetage of England Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of all the Baronets now existing'', Edward Kimber and Richard Johnson, Vol 2 (1771) pp. 368-70]
Construction
In 1821, the fifth Baronet, Robert Johnson Eden, replaced the 16th-century manor house with a new mansion designed by architect Ignatius Bonomi. The two-storey house presents a twelve-bay balustraded frontage to the east. A balustraded Doric order
The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
extends across nine bays of the ground floor. The north ends in a large apse
In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...
. A billiard room was attached to the north east in the late-19th century.
People associated with the house
On the death of the fifth Baronet in 1844, the estate and Baronetcy passed to his first cousin once removed, Sir William Eden, who was already the fourth Eden of Maryland Baronet. He was High Sheriff of Durham in 1848.
The house was the birthplace in 1897 of Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achi ...
, the younger son of the sixth baronet; Eden entered parliament as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament in 1923, later serving as a cabinet minister before serving as Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
from 1955 to 1957. Eden's brother Timothy inherited the baronetcies and the estate on the death of their father in 1915, and sold the Hall (along with 4,500 acres, a London property at Hyde Park Gardens and the village of Rushyford) in 1936 to John Todd of Northallerton
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wiske in the Vale of Mowbray and had a population of 16,832 in 2011. Northallerton is an administrative centre for York and North Yorkshire ...
.["Windlestone Hall sold"](_blank)
'' Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette'', 15 July 1936, p. 2. By that time, the Hall had been leased for three years to the Wayfarers' Benevolent Fund, a charity helping to train young homeless people. The lease still had seven years remaining at the time of the sale.
Later history
The house and estate were used as a prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
camp during World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a satellite camp of Harperley POW Camp 93. Durham County Council acquired the Hall around 1954 and, between 1957 and 2006, it was occupied by Windlestone Hall School, a local authority residential special school. The school closed in 2006, and was sold for £240,000 by 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 ...
to William Davenport in 2011.["Windlestone Hall still derelict despite millions invested"](_blank)
''BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
'', 14 October 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2019. Durham County Council was criticised for the sale, especially when Windlestone Hall was put back on the market three years later for £2,500,000 – over ten times the previous sale price. Davenport was jailed for 6 years in 2016 for using forged documents to acquire a mortgage when purchasing the house and estate, and the property was repossessed by the bank.
Windlestone Hall was listed for auction with an entry guide price of £400,000 in July 2017. On 17 July 2017 it was removed from the auction and marked as "sold prior to auction" to an, as yet, unknown buyer. The BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
later reported that the Hall had been purchased by Carlauren, a property developer, for £850,000; it intended to turn the Hall into a high-end care home and attracted £8.5m in investment through the sale of 53 residential units which investors would lease to care-home residents. The BBC reported in October 2019, however, that the property was "still derelict" and not operating as a care home.
Phased construction of the 1821 Hall
The 1821 reconstruction of the 1650s Elizabethan Hall was carried out in 4 main phases, likely around the demolition of parts of the 1560s mansion. The picture below shows the 4 key phases:
* First Phase: main mansion house
* Second Phase: extended entertainment wing with apsidal termination c.1844
* Third Phase: service range c.1844
* Fourth Phase: billiard room addition c.1890
Phased.png, Windlestone Hall Phased Construction
Chronology
Preservation
Having been exposed to the elements since the major roof metal (lead) theft of 2017, the building is now considered to be beyond economical repair - costing more to repair than its completed value.
In November 2019 Durham County Council secured the property and gave notice for no access due to safety. The interior was deteriorating rapidly although it seems work had been started by someone, as yet unknown, to secure the exterior from further damage and deterioration.
In July 2020 the Hall and Estate were purchased by a dedicated preservation trust, a registered UK charity, with the sole aim of protecting, restoring and preserving the heritage assets. The Trust have ambitious plans for complete restoration of Windlestone Hall to its former glory as a significant private residence, reinstatement of the walled gardens and grounds, returning the designed landscape and reinstating a working and viable country estate with significant access for the public.
2021 Planning Consent
On 5 July 2021 Durham County Council's County Planning Committee met to consider both FPA (Full Planning Application) and LBC (Listed Building Consent) applications made by the Windlestone Park Estate Preservation Trust. The meeting was the first to be held in person at County Hall, Durham, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the meeting wa
streamed live
to the public. Both applications were unanimously approved by Durham County Council and paved the way for the complete restoration of the Windlestone Park Estate. The planning application contains:
* Complete restoration of Grade II* listed
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, H ...
Windlestone Hall, being returned to a single private residence
* Complete restoration of the Grade II* listed
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, H ...
Clocktower, with new clock faces and mechanism being installed alongside major masonry conservation
* Complete restoration of the private parterre
A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, plats, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the ...
gardens of Windlestone Hall
* Complete restoration of the large walled garden to the west of Windlestone Hall
* Restoration of the Grade II listed
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, H ...
'Old Stables' to form staff accommodation and an estate energy centre and service yard
* Restoration of the Grade II listed 'Clocktower Stables' to form a commercial hub containing: offices, a cafe, a coffee shop, estate farm shop and independent retail units
* Reinstatement of the mid 19th century ornamental lake, complete with island and temple
* Construction of an Ionic Temple on the site of the former estate mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...
* Restoration of North Lodge to form the estate office
* Significant landscape improvements
* Enabling development in the form of 13 4 and 5 bedroom detached dwellings, and 4 leasehold apartments
Urgent repairs and conservation work had already been underway since the Windlestone Park Estate Preservation Trust purchased the site in July 2020, but the grant of planning permission will see an immediate start to the major works at the site.
The Clocktower
The Clocktower and surrounding c-plan stables pre-date the major rebuilding of the main hall, with the estate archives showing that the clock mechanism was commissioned and set to work in 1817. The Clocktower is Grade II* listed in its own right, and has a striking resemblance to that at Wallington Hall, Northumberland.
References
External links
WPEPT Instagra
Windlestone Park Estate Preservation Trus
{{Anthony Eden, state=collapsed
16th-century establishments in England
Houses completed in the 16th century
Grade II* listed buildings in County Durham
Country houses in County Durham
History of County Durham
World War II prisoner-of-war camps in England
Anthony Eden