Elemore Hall is a mid-18th-century country house, now in use as a residential special school, near

Pittington Pittington is a village and civil parish in County Durham, in England. It is situated a few miles north-east of Durham. The population as taken at the 2011 census was 2,534. Pittington is made up of the neighbouring settlements of Low Pittingto ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, England. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The manor of Elemore was owned prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries by the Priory of Finchale. It was sold to Bertram Anderson, Mayor and Sheriff of Newcastle upon Tyne, who built a manor house in about 1550. The estate passed from Anderson to Hall and then by marriage to

Thomas Conyers Thomas Conyers (ca. 16664 October 1728) of Elemore Hall, County Durham was an English Tory politician who sat in the English House of Commons between 1695 and 1708 and in the British House of Commons from 1708 to 1727. Early life Conyers was th ...

MP for Durham City 1702-22. In about 1700 Elizabeth Conyers, heiress of the estate, married George Baker, also MP for Durham City, of

Crook Hall Crook Hall, sited near Lanchester, County Durham, some north west of the city of Durham, was one of two Roman Catholic seminaries which temporarily replaced the Douai seminary in Douai, France when that college was suppressed soon after the Frenc ...

, near Lanchester. (archived)

Structure

Their son George Baker inherited the manor in 1723 and in about 1750 replaced the old manor house with the present mansion to a design by architect

Robert Shout The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

of Hemsley. The house follows the E-plan of the old manor but on a much grander scale. The three storey, seven bayed entrance front has a pedimented three bayed projecting central block and two flanking and projecting pedimented single bay wings. It is a Grade I listed building.

Baker family

In 1844 Isabella Baker heiress married the son of her aunt and first cousin, Henry Tower. On inheriting the property he changed his name to Henry Baker Baker. He was

High Sheriff of Durham This is a list of the High Sheriffs of County Durham, England. In most counties the High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. In the Palatinate of Durham the officeholder was appointed by and was accountable to the Bishop of D ...

in 1854. The Baker Baker family lived at the Hall until the 1930s.

School

In 1947 the estate was bought or leased to

Durham County Council Durham County Council is a local authority administering all significant local government functions in the unitary authority area of County Durham in North East England. The council area covers part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, e ...

. S.E.D. Wilson, the vice chairman of the Northern Coal Divisional Board, said, "The estate was formerly leased by a colliery company to protect themselves against claims for subsidence ... The Hall is not convenient for use as area headquarters ... but it might be suitable as a school for other educational purposes". The Hall has since then been occupied by a local education authority day and residential special school. In 1992 a new teaching block, designed by Thomas Weatherald of

Askrigg Askrigg is a small village and civil parish in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is part of the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. The village and its parish are located in Upper Wensleydale, west of Leyburn ...

, was planned at a cost of £357,546 (). In 1959, Elemore Hall School headmaster Alan Little was cleared of excessively and publicly injuring a disabled pupil by hitting him with a slipper, in spite of school staff, a senior inspector of the N.S.P.C.C. and two doctors noting "excessive bruises". The defence counsel, Peter Taylor, submitted that, "It is a very odd piece of corporal punishment that doesn't hurt – that is what it is meant to do". The boy, Michael John Paxton, was aged 12 years.

References

External links

* (Includes set of exterior photographs). {{Authority control Grade I listed buildings in County Durham Country houses in County Durham Pittington