Wynyard Park, County Durham

Last updated

Wynyard
Wynyard Morris.jpg
Wynyard, circa 1880
Durham UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in County Durham
General information
Architectural style Neo-Palladian
LocationWynyard, Stockton-on-Tees, England, UK
Coordinates 54°37′31″N1°21′01″W / 54.6252°N 1.3503°W / 54.6252; -1.3503
OS grid NZ425255
Client Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
Owner Sir John Hall and family

Wynyard, sometimes known as Wynyard Hall, is a large English country house near Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham. The house was the English family seat of the Vane-Tempest-Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry, an Anglo-Irish aristocratic dynasty, until it was sold to Sir John Hall in 1987.

Contents

The house

View towards the entrance front Wynyard Park.jpg
View towards the entrance front

The building was originally designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt and completed by Philip Wyatt between 1822 and 1830. The entrance front has 13 bays and a 6-column Corinthian portico.

The entrance hall resembles that of Mount Stewart, the family's estate in Northern Ireland. It has a coffered segmental tunnel vault with apses at both ends and in the middle. There was a large crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling. The main octagonal centre hall extends the full height of the house and has a dome with caryatids around it and a skylight. There is also a mirrored drawing room with a gilded and painted ceiling, and a vast ballroom similar to that of the family's London residence, Londonderry House.

The family wing of the mansion was nicknamed the Duke's Wing, as it was named after the Duke of Wellington and his visit in 1827. This side of the house also held the Duke's Gallery, where the family housed their famed art collection when not in London.

Gardens

Many statues adorn the grand entrance court outside the house and a wide path leading to an obelisk. This, 127 feet (39 m) high, commemorates the arranged visit of the 1st Duke of Wellington, the national hero who also served as Prime Minister, to the house and the area in 1827.

At its height in the 19th century, the Wynyard Estate occupied 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) (28 km²) in Teesside. The grounds today include a 15-acre (61,000 m2) ornamental lake, a walled garden, two entrance lodges, three cottages, a former racing yard, and productive farmland.

Brief history

The house was started by Benjamin Dean Wyatt and finished by Philip Wyatt for Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, a famous coal magnate and founder of Seaham Harbour. The marquess spent £130,000 (equivalent to £12,488,000in 2021) to build and furnish the home. In 1841, just as the residence was being completed, a fire broke out and gutted the building; it was later restored and remodelled by Ignatius Bonomi.

There had been a house on the site since the Middle Ages, and the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry incorporated parts of an earlier 18th-century building into his home.

In the 19th century, George Vane-Tempest, who became Earl Vane in 1854 and the 5th Marquess of Londonderry in 1872, owned vast estates – 27,000 acres (11,000 ha) in Ireland, and 23,000 acres (9,300 ha) in England and Wales. He also sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for 26 years. Upon the death of the 5th Marquess in 1884, his eldest son Charles became the 6th Marquess. It was the 6th Marquess's wife, Lady Theresa, who was the model for the famous Lady Roehampton in Vita Sackville-West's The Edwardians.

The estate remained in the Londonderry family until 1987, [1] although it had been let as a training school for teachers from 1945 until 1960, during which time it lost most of its original contents through sales and breakages.

The estate was sold in 1987 to Sir John Hall, along with 5,000 acres (2,000 ha). Hall spent £4,000,000 to restore the house, hiring Rupert Lord to oversee the restoration; he later moved his company headquarters, as well as his home, into the mansion. The estate, comprising the house and 780 acres (320 ha) of parkland, was listed for sale in July 2002 for £8,000,000 but was never sold. It is now a special event venue owned by the Hall family and, while much of the estate has been given over to residential and light-industrial development, the parkland around the house has been preserved. The original walled garden has also been restored as a tourist attraction and hospitality venue. [2]

Royal visits

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (as Prince and Princess of Wales before 1901) were frequent visitors to Wynyard. As King, Edward presided over a meeting of the Privy Council there in 1903 — the first time the Council had met in a house belonging to a subject since 1625. [3]

King George V also visited as Prince of Wales, including in November 1902. [4]

Developments at Wynyard

Offices at the Wynyard business park Office building, Wynyard Park (geograph 7145301).jpg
Offices at the Wynyard business park

There are three areas of housing development (approximately 800 properties in all) within the former Wynyard Estate: Wynyard Village, Wynyard Woods and Wynyard Park. Wynyard Estate's residents include Duncan Bannatyne [5] and many footballers, such as Tommy Miller, Malcolm Christie and Steve Baker. Former residents include Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer. [6]

Wynyard Estate has some of the most expensive houses in the North East, as well as the most expensive road in Teesside. [7] Wynyard Park is home to several gated communities, the main one being the Manorside development, a collection of 27 self-built executive homes. [8] There is a golf club on Wellington Drive. [9]

Land north of the A689 has been acquired by Chris Musgrave, a Hartlepool businessman. For a time, Wynyard Park was used on a commercial basis by Samsung. Plans to build eco-friendly housing and parkland have been approved by the local council. They include 2,000 houses, a 3-star hotel, and a 5-star business hotel. A plan to build a £464 million hospital on the site has been abandoned. [10] [11]

In June 2019, a major redevelopment of Wynyard golf club was granted permission. The redevelopment includes a 150 bed luxury hotel and a sporting academy. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire</span> Building in West Bretton, England

Bretton Hall is a country house in West Bretton near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It housed Bretton Hall College from 1949 until 2001 and was a campus of the University of Leeds (2001–2007). It is a Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seaham</span> Seaside town in County Durham, England

Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated 6 miles south of Sunderland and 13 miles (21 km) east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and coal mines. The town is twinned with the German town of Gerlingen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquess of Londonderry</span> Title in the Peerage of Ireland

Marquess of Londonderry, of the County of Londonderry, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry</span> Anglo-Irish soldier (1778–1854)

Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, a British soldier and a politician. He served in the French Revolutionary Wars, in the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and in the Napoleonic wars. He excelled as a cavalry commander in the Peninsular War (1807–1814) under John Moore and Arthur Wellesley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry</span> English noble

Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, DBE was a noted and influential society hostess in the United Kingdom between World War I and World War II, a friend of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald. She was a noted gardener and a writer and editor of the works of others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St MacNissi's College</span> Grammar school in Antrim, Northern Ireland

St MacNissi's College was a Roman Catholic grammar school located 5 miles (8 km) to the north of Carnlough.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Stewart</span> Historic residence in Northern Ireland

Mount Stewart is a 19th-century house and garden in County Down, Northern Ireland, owned by the National Trust. Situated on the east shore of Strangford Lough, a few miles outside the town of Newtownards and near Greyabbey, it was the Irish seat of the Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry. Prominently associated with the 2nd Marquess, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Britain's Foreign Secretary at the Congress of Vienna and with the 7th Marquess, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the former Air Minister who at Mount Stewart attempted private diplomacy with Hitler's Germany, the house and its contents reflect the history of the family's leading role in social and political life in Britain and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry</span> British aristocrat, businessman, diplomat and Conservative politician

George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry, KP, styled Viscount Seaham between 1823 and 1854 and known as The Earl Vane between 1854 and 1872, was a British aristocrat, businessman, diplomat and Conservative politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Londonderry House</span> Former building in London

Londonderry House was an aristocratic townhouse situated on Park Lane in the Mayfair district of London, England. The mansion served as the London residence of the Marquesses of Londonderry. It remained their home until 1962. In that year Londonderry House was sold by the Trustees of the 7th Marquess of Londonderry's Will Trusts to a developer who built the "Londonderry Hotel" on the site, not the Hilton. The Hilton Hotel is on the other side of the street, and had already been opened. COMO Metropolitan London now occupies the site of Londonderry House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seaham Hall</span> Building in England, UK

Seaham Hall is an English country house, now run as a spa hotel, in County Durham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plas Machynlleth</span>

Plas Machynlleth is the former Welsh residence of the Marquesses of Londonderry. It is situated in the market town of Machynlleth in Powys, Wales. It was brought into the family following the 1846 marriage of the then Viscount Seaham to Mary Cornelia Edwards, who inherited it on the death of her father, Sir John Edwards, in 1850. Sir John had extended and renamed the house. It is a Grade II* listed building and its gardens, now mainly a public park, are listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

Philip William Wyatt was an English architect and member of the Wyatt family. He was the youngest son of the architect James Wyatt and his wife Rachel (Lunn) Wyatt, and a nephew of Samuel Wyatt, cousin to Sir Jeffry Wyatville.

Alexander Charles Robert "Alastair" Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry was a British nobleman.

John Tempest Jr. was a County Durham landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1794.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry</span> British noble

Frances Anne Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry was a wealthy Anglo-Irish heiress and noblewoman. She was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, 2nd Baronet. She married Charles William Stewart, 1st Baron Stewart. She became a marchioness in 1822 when Charles succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry</span> British Conservative politician, landowner and benefactor

Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry,, styled Viscount Castlereagh between 1872 and 1884, was a British Conservative politician, landowner and benefactor, who served in various capacities in the Conservative administrations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After succeeding his father in the marquessate in 1884, he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland between 1886 and 1889. He later held office as Postmaster General between 1900 and 1902 and as President of the Board of Education between 1902 and 1905. A supporter of the Protestant causes in Ulster, he was an opponent of Irish Home Rule and one of the instigators of the formal alliance between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Unionists in 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cefntilla Court</span> House in Llandenny, Monmouthshire

Cefn Tilla Court, Llandenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, is a country house dating from the mid-19th century. Its origins date from 1616. During the English Civil War, the court was the headquarters of Thomas Fairfax during the siege of Raglan Castle and the terms of the castle's surrender were signed at the house in 1646. By the early 19th century, the court was derelict. In 1856 it was sold by Crawshay Bailey to the Memorial Committee established to commemorate the life of FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, British commander during the Crimean War. The house was completely rebuilt by Thomas Henry Wyatt and donated to Lord Raglan's heir, Richard Somerset as a memorial to his father. The house is a Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rushton Hall</span> Historic site in Rushton, Northamptonshire

Rushton Hall in Rushton, Northamptonshire, England, was the ancestral home of the Tresham family from 1438, when William Tresham, a veteran of the Battle of Agincourt and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster bought the estate. In the 20th century the house became a private school and it has now been converted to a luxury hotel. The estate is about 227 acres (92 ha) of which 30 acres (12 ha) are formal gardens. The River Ise flows from west to east south of the Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seaham Hall Dene railway station</span> Disused railway station in Seaham, County Durham

Seaham Hall Dene railway station was a private railway station that served Seaham Hall, the then a home of the Marquess of Londonderry close to the town of Seaham, County Durham, England from 1875 to 1925 on the Durham Coast Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresa Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry</span> Irish aristocrat, Unionist, and political hostess

Theresa Susey Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry was a British socialite and political hostess. She was a leading Unionist campaigner against Irish Home Rule, serving as president of the Ulster Women's Unionist Council from 1913 to 1919. She was said to be one of the most "dominating feminine personalities" of the time and was referred to as the "Queen of Toryism" and a "highwaywoman in a tiara."

References

  1. ↑ "Sale of the century as aristocrats auction heirlooms". Daily Telegraph.
  2. ↑ Hodgson, Barbara (4 August 2015). "Sir John Hall reveals his blooming lovely £1.6m garden at Wynyard Hall". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  3. ↑ Sir Almeric Fitzroy, Memoirs (London and New York, 1925), vol. I, p. 161.
  4. ↑ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36915. London. 3 November 1902. p. 6.
  5. ↑ "It is great to be alive This is Wynyard Park on Twitpic". Twitpic.com. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  6. ↑ Chris Arnot (30 January 2002). "Laager toffs | Society". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  7. ↑ Morgan, Paula (9 February 2019). "Teesside's most expensive streets to buy a home". Teesside Live. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  8. ↑ Morgan, Paula (5 July 2016). "Best way to find Teesside's most luxurious home? Build it". Teesside Live. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  9. ↑ Wynyardgolfclub.co.uk
  10. ↑ "Green dream becoming reality at Wynyard Park – Wynyard Park". Wynyardpark.com. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  11. ↑ "Where next for the scrapped £460m Wynyard hospital?". BBC News. 18 June 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  12. ↑ Morgan, Paula (6 June 2019). "huge golf resort and hotel gets the green light from planners". Teesside Live. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.