Minsteracres is an 18th-century mansion house, now a Christian retreat centre, in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is a Grade II

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 ...

. The house was built in 1758 by George Silvertop. Originally erected with two storeys, a third storey was added in 1811 and a new North wing was built in 1865. The Silvertops were a Roman Catholic family.''Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of England and Ireland'' (1835) Vol 3 pp300-2 Google Books George Silvertop was in 1831 the first Catholic appointed

High Sheriff of Northumberland This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Northumberland. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries ...

following the repeal of the penal law.''Archaeologia Aeliana'' CH Hunter Blair (1943) p47 and 51 Google Books His nephew Henry Charles Silvertop, High Sheriff in 1859 built a Catholic chapel adjoining the hall, and dedicated to St Elizabeth of Hungary in 1854. The chapel is a Grade II listed building. The Silvertop family sold the House in 1949 for conversion to a

Passionist The Passionists, officially named Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (), abbreviated CP, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men, founded by Paul of the Cross in 1720 with a special emphasis on and d ...

Monastery. A retreat house was opened in 1967, and in the 1970s links were established with the

Selly Park Selly Park is a Residential area, residential suburban district in south-west Birmingham, England. The suburb of Selly Park is located between the Bristol Road (A38 road, A38) and the Pershore Road (A441 road, A441). Toponymy Selly Park is name ...

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

and the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

from

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. Since 2012 Minsteracres has been run by a charitable trust on behalf of the Passionist community. It describes itself as a "Christian place of prayer with a resident community rooted in the Roman Catholic Passionist tradition". In the early 1960s

Consett Consett is a town in County Durham, England, about south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001 and an estimate of 25,812 in 2019. History Consett sits high on the edge of the Pennines. Its' name originates in the ...

artist

Sheila Mackie Sheila Gertrude Mackie (1928-2010) was an English artist, illustrator and teacher from Consett, County Durham. She was born in Chester-le-Street, and studied art at King's College in Newcastle (now Newcastle University). She taught art at Cons ...

painted two large murals ''Agony in the Garden'' and ''The Conversion of Saul'', each by for the Minsteracres retreat house; they were known to still exist in 2010 and are listed in the database ''PostWar Murals Database''. ''NB Order of listings is not explicit but appears to by county, so "Northumberland"'' The east and west lodges, stable block, entrance screen with flanking walls and a group of farm buildings are all separately grade II listed.

References

External links

* * {{Coord, 54, 53, 43, N, 1, 57, 47, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Northumberland Former Christian monasteries in the United Kingdom Passionist Order Catholic spirituality Spiritual retreats Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle