Woolsington Hall is a

Grade II* 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 ...

listed

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 ...

in a estate, in the village of Woolsington, in the city of Newcastle,

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 ...

, north-west of

Newcastle city centre Newcastle City Centre is the city centre district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the historical heart of the city and serves as the main cultural and commercial centre of the North East England region. The city centre forms the core o ...

, and immediately south of Newcastle Airport. In addition to the hall, the stables, coach house, orangery, walled garden and east wing are Grade II listed. The hall is not habitable and requires full restoration. It has been on

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

since 2002.

Design

The hall is built of stone, with painted

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressings and edged by

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s. The roof is made of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

from the

Lake district The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

with stone gables. The house is 2 storeys high, divided into 3 bays and a single bay wing.

History

Woolsington Hall was the seat of the Bell family, landowners in Dinnington. In 1828 Matthew Bell, MP for

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 ...

and Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland was listed as living at the hall. All four battalions of the

103rd (Tyneside Irish) Brigade The Tyneside Irish Brigade was a British First World War infantry brigade of Kitchener's Army, raised in 1914. Officially numbered the 103rd (Tyneside Irish) Brigade, it contained four Pals battalions from Newcastle upon Tyne, largely made up of m ...

camped briefly at Woolsington Hall in May 1915. Conditions were so bad at Woolsington Hall that many soldiers who lived locally went home rather than stay there. The brigade trained in trench fighting at nearby

Ponteland Ponteland ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is northwest of Newcastle upon Tyne. Built on marshland near St Mary's Church and the old bridge, most marshland has now been drained to make way for housing. In the ind ...

, and paraded through Newcastle city centre before departing from Woolsington for

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but st ...

Recent history

Woolsington Hall was bought by businessman Sir

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (1951–2023), professor of classics at Brigham Young Univ ...

's Cameron Hall Developments for £1.32 million in 1994. Since 1994, Hall has proposed several developments of the Woolsington site including a football academy for Newcastle United, which was later built in Little Benton. A luxury hotel and golf course was later planned for the Woolsington Hall estate. Hall was threatened with legal action by Newcastle City Council in 2005 unless he carried out repairs to Woolsington Hall. The hall was put up for sale for £2 million in October 2012, but withdrawn from sale in May 2013. At that time, due to the dereliction of the hall it was described by the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' as a "distressed asset". In 2013 the councillor for the Woolsington ward, George Pattison, said that "It is a complete waste for it to be standing empty. It is a beautiful building and has a lot of historical significance...If it could be restored to something of the calibre of the Mansion House in Jesmond then it would be a great asset to the ward." The house was made weather tight in 2008. Since 2002 the Woolington Hall estate has been on

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 ...

. The register said that the hall "...is vacant and showing signs of roof failure." It was rated Category C by the register, defined as "Slow decay, no solution agreed". On the night of 30 December 2015, Woolsington Hall was gutted by a fire which destroyed its floors and roof. It was described as an arson attack by

Northumbria Police Northumbria Police is a territorial police force in England, responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. It is the largest police force in the North East by geographical area and number of officers. T ...

who appealed for information to identify the perpetrators. The Heritage at Risk Register now categorises it as in 'category F, very bad condition'. The Leazes Gates, a set of two-tonne monumental gates from

Newcastle United F.C. Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Since the formation of the club in 1881 ...

St James' Park St James' Park is a Association football, football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Newcastle United F.C., Newcastle United. With a seating capacity of 52,305, it is the List of football stadiums in England, 8th la ...

stadium, were stored in the grounds of Woolsington Hall until their restoration in August 2013. It had been hoped that they would form the entrance to a new football training centre at the hall.

References

External links

Newcastle City Council's development control committee's report on Woolsington Hall
* {{EHbarName, Woolsington+Hall Houses completed in the 17th century Houses completed in the 18th century Houses completed in the 19th century Structures on the Heritage at Risk register Grade II listed buildings in Tyne and Wear Grade II* listed buildings in Tyne and Wear Grade II* listed houses Houses in Tyne and Wear 2010s fires in the United Kingdom 2015 disasters in the United Kingdom 2015 fires in Europe