Woolsington Hall is a

Grade II* 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 ...

listed

country house 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 town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in a estate, in the village of

Woolsington Woolsington is a village in, and civil parish of, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is located north-west of the city centre, covering a large geographical area. It was also formerly an electoral ward, although the ward was slightly larger than ...

, in the city of Newcastle,

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 ...

, 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 of ...

, and immediately south of

Newcastle Airport Newcastle or New Castle Airport may refer to: * Newcastle International Airport, an airport in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK ** Newcastle Airport metro station, the Tyne and Wear metro station serving the airport * Newcastle Airport (Nevis), no ...

. 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, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

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 actio ...

since 2002.

Design

The hall is built of stone, with painted

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

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, t ...

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 rock. ...

from the

Lake district The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

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 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 ...

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 large village and civil parish in Northumberland, England, north of Newcastle upon Tyne. The name means "island in the Pont", after the River Pont which flows from west to east and joins the River Blyth further downstream, be ...

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

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central 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 wi ...

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 (born 1951), professor of classics at Brigham Young Unive ...

'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 Little Benton is a small suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, which holds two modern housing estates (Church Green and Haydon Grange) along with the site of Newcastle United's academy base. The closest amenities can be found at Four Lane Ends, one mil ...

. 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 Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'' 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

. 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. It is responsible for policing the metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and the City of Sunderland, as well as the ceremonial county ...

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 an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

St James' Park St James' Park is a football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. With a seating capacity of 52,305 seats, it is the eighth largest football stadium in England. St James' Park ...

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