Adderstone Hall () is a privately owned

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Grecian mansion situated on the bank of the River Warn near Lucker,

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 ...

. 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 ...

from which the present owners operate a holiday park. Adderstone was held by the Forster family, Governors of

Bamburgh Castle Bamburgh Castle is a castle on the northeast coast of England, by the village of Bamburgh in Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building. The site was originally the location of a Celtic Brittonic fort known as ''Din Guarie'' and may have ...

from the 12th century. A

pele tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...

of which no trace now remains existed on or close to the site in 1415. Thomas Forster (1659–1725),

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 ...

, built a new manor house in the early 18th century. The Forsters lived on the estate for over 400 years until they were ruined by the financial excesses of Sir William Forster (d. 1700) and the involvement of

Thomas Forster Thomas Forster (1683 – October 1738), of Adderstone Hall, Northumberland, was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1716. He served as a general of the Jacobite army in the 1715 Uprising ...

(1683–1738) in the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts The House of Stuart, ori ...

. The property, already leased and subsequently acquired by the Watson family, passed briefly to John W. Bacon of Staward Hall in 1763 before passing to the Watsons who were already tenants of the property. The present hall was built in 1819 to a design by architect

William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival,often referred t ...

. The first Watson to be born at Adderstone (in 1760) was Captain John Watson whose son Sir William Watson, an MP and

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...

(1856) married Anne, the sister of the great industrialist Lord Armstrong. Their son John William (born at Adderstone Hall 1827) had one son,

Willam Willam Belli (, born June 30, 1982), mononymously known as Willam, is an American drag queen, actor, singer-songwriter, reality television personality, author, and YouTuber. Willam came to prominence as a contestant on the fourth season of ''R ...

, who inherited Cragside and the Armstrong fortune from his great-uncle, Lord Armstrong, who had bought Bamburgh Castle in the 1894 after the death of his wife, Margaret Ramshaw, and began restoring the building in grand Victorian style, but died (in 1900) before the work was completed. Adderstone was left to his sister Dorothy who married Noel Villiers in 1903 and lived at Adderstone Hall until she died in 1961, when the property was sold for the benefit of her many nephews and nieces.

References

* * ''The History and Antiquities of North Durham'' (1852) Rev James Raine MA pp307–310 * Burke's Peerage 1930 {{Authority control Grade II* listed buildings in Northumberland Country houses in Northumberland