| Gunnergate Hall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England |
| Completed | 1857 |
| Demolished | 1946 |
| Client | Charles Albert Leatham |
Gunnergate Hall was a mansion house with grounds in the south of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England.
Gunnergate Hall was built in 1857 for Charles Albert Leatham, a wealthy Quaker banker. [1] [2] [3] Albert Leatham died in 1858 and in 1860 his widow sold Gunnergate Hall to ironmaster John Vaughan [4] [5] [6] who used it as his residence. [7] John Vaughan died in 1868 and his second son Thomas Vaughan inherited the hall and lived there. [1] [5] [6] Thomas Vaughan spent extensively improving the hall, [1] however his business failed and the hall was sold in 1881 to Carl Bolckow, [1] [5] [6] nephew of Henry Bolckow. Carl Bolckow sold the hall to mayor and shipbuilder Sir Raylton Dixon in 1888. [1] [5] [8] Sir Raylton Dixon died in 1901 [1] [2] [5] and thereafter the hall was left unoccupied, and fell into disrepair. [1] [8] The hall was used as an army base in both world wars [1] [5] [8] but was demolished in 1946 shortly after World War II, [1] [3] [4] [5] [8] and the land acquired by Middlesbrough Council. [2]
Gunnergate Hall was located off Tollesby Lane [4] and there is a plaque in the grounds that shows the former location of the hall. [8] The main entrance drive was from Stokesley Road in Marton. [5] Gunnergate Hall had three lodges but only two survive, Hunter’s Lodge on Gunnergate Lane and High Lodge on Tollesby Lane. [3] [4]
The hall had a banqueting hall, ballroom and billiard room [6] and the grounds had a rockery, tennis courts, greenhouses, waterfall, lake, fountain, and boat house. [2] [6] A water tower in the grounds may have supplied the lake fountain or else provided water pressure for the house. [9]
| Fairy Dell Park | |
|---|---|
| Fairy Dell | |
 | |
| Type | Nature Reserve and Parkland |
| Location | Middlesbrough |
| Coordinates | 54°31′34″N1°12′40″W / 54.526°N 1.211°W |
| Operated by | Middlesbrough Council with The Friends of Fairy Dell |
| Status | open all year round |
| Awards | Green Flag Award |
| Website | Friends of Fairy Dell |
Fairy Dell is a local nature reserve, [10] and the former gardens and grounds of Gunnergate Hall. [2] [11] Fairy Dell is a laid out parkland and natural wooded beck valley with an ornamental lake and flood defence lakes that is part of the Marton West Beck wildlife corridor. [12] [13] The site was redeveloped as a flood defence in the late 1970s by Northumbrian Water and Middlesbrough Council. [12]
Access to the park can be gained from nearby Newham Grange Country Farm. [14] Wildlife to be found include watervoles, herons, kingfishers, moorhens, and mallards. [10] [14] Numerous chainsaw sculptures have been created in the woodlands by Steve Iredale. [14] Activities undertaken by the Friends of Fairy Dell interest group include path clearing, strimming, and planting. [15] The park was given a Green Flag Award by the Civic Trust. [12]
Discoveries in the area have included animal bones and a sunken path. An archaeological dig is planned for 2014 led by Tees Archaeology. [16] [17] [18] A £38,000 grant has been obtained from the Community Spaces Programme of the Heritage Lottery Fund for improving footpaths and natural woodland, flower planting, extra seating and the archaeological dig. [16] [17] [19]
Middlesbrough, colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside built-up area and the Tees Valley. It is located 41 miles (66 km) south of Newcastle upon Tyne, 43 miles (69 km) north of York, 66 miles (106 km) north-west of Leeds, and 217 miles (349 km) north of London. With a population of 148,215 recorded in 2021, Middlesbrough is one of the largest settlements in North East England.
Teesside is a built-up area around the River Tees in North East England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The area contains the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham, Redcar, Thornaby-on-Tees, and Ingleby Barwick. Teesside's economy was once dominated by heavy manufacturing until deindustrialisation in the latter half of the 20th century. Chemical production continues to contribute significantly to Teesside's economy.
Marton or Marton-in-Cleveland is an area of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Until the 1950s, it was a small village next to the hamlet of Tollesby in Yorkshire's North Riding.
Dorman Long & Co was a UK steel producer, later diversifying into bridge building. The company was once listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Middlesbrough College, located on one campus at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, is the largest college on Teesside.
Stainton is a village in the south-west outskirts of Middlesbrough, in the Middlesbrough district, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England.
Hemlington is an area of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It is centred around a lake and is in the Borough of Middlesbrough's south-western outskirts.
Easterside is an area in the Ladgate ward of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It is bounded to the east by Marton Road (A172) and by B1380 to the south. It had a population of 2,842 in 2011.
Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is a public museum located in Stewart Park in Marton, Middlesbrough within the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is one of two institutions managed by Middlesbrough Council, along with the Dorman Museum.
The Cleveland Hills are a range of hills on the north-west edge of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking Cleveland and Teesside. They lie entirely within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park. Part of the 110-mile (177 km) long Cleveland Way National Trail runs along the hills, and they are also crossed by a section of Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk. The hills, which rise abruptly from the flat Tees Valley to the north, include distinctive landmarks such as the cone-shaped peak of Roseberry Topping, near the village of Great Ayton – childhood home of Captain James Cook.
The A172 is a major road in North Yorkshire, and the unitary authority of Middlesbrough, England. It runs from Ingleby Arncliffe to Middlesbrough. The road derives its adumbrated number from 1969 when a thoroughfare link connected South Teesside with the Lackenby Docks in Middlesbrough. Since further urban infrastructure development it has been extended into the North Yorkshire Moors, when it transforms into A174.
Stewart Park is a 120-acre public park in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, in the suburb and former village of Marton, England.
Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, originally Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Bölckow, was a Victorian industrialist and Member of Parliament, acknowledged as being one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough.
John Vaughan, known as Jacky, was born in Worcester on "St Thomas' Day" in 1799, the son of Welsh parents. He worked his way up the iron industry, becoming an ironmaster and co-founder of the largest of all the Victorian iron and steel companies, Bolckow Vaughan. Where Henry Bolckow provided the investment and business expertise, Vaughan contributed technical knowledge, in a long-lasting and successful partnership that transformed Middlesbrough from a small town to the centre of ironmaking in Britain.
The Teesside Steelworks was a large steelworks that formed a continuous stretch along the south bank of the River Tees from the towns of Middlesbrough to Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. At its height there were 91 blast furnaces within a 10-mile radius of the area. By the end of the 1970s there was only one left on Teesside. Opened in 1979 and located near the mouth of the River Tees, the Redcar blast furnace was the second largest in Europe.
Sir Raylton Dixon, was a shipbuilding magnate from Middlesbrough on the River Tees who served as Mayor of Middlesbrough.
The Teesside trolleybus system once served the conurbation of Teesside, in the North East of England. Opened on 8 November 1919, it was unusual in being a completely new system that was not replacing any previously operating tramway network.
Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd was an English ironmaking and mining company founded in 1864, based on the partnership since 1840 of its two founders, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan. The firm drove the dramatic growth of Middlesbrough and the production of coal and iron in the north-east of England in the 19th century. The two founding partners had an exceptionally close working relationship which lasted until Vaughan's death.
Middlesbrough started as a Benedictine priory on the south bank of the River Tees, its name possibly derived from it being midway between the holy sites of Durham and Whitby. The earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name is "Mydilsburgh", containing the term burgh.
The Borough of Middlesbrough is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England, based around the town of Middlesbrough in the north of the county. Middlesbrough Council became a unitary authority in 1996. The borough is part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, along with the boroughs of Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool and Darlington. There are two parish councils in the area of the borough of Middlesbrough, Nunthorpe and Stainton and Thornton respectively.
