Wallington is a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire 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 Townhou ...

and gardens located about west of Morpeth,

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England, near the village of Cambo. It has been owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

since 1942, after it was donated complete with the estate and farms by Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet, the first donation of its kind. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Some of the wealth of the Trevelyan family derived from the holding of

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

History

The estate was owned by the Fenwick family from 1475 until

Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet ( – 28 January 1697) was an English Army officer and politician. He succeeded to the Fenwick baronetcy after the death of his father, Sir William Fenwick. A supporter of the Jacobite cause, Fenwick was involved ...

had financial problems and opted to sell his properties to the Blacketts in 1688. He sold the rump of the family estates and Wallington Hall to Sir William Blackett for £4000 and an annuity of £2000 a year. The annuity was to be paid for his lifetime and that of his wife, Mary Fenwick. Blackett was happy with the deal as he discovered lead on the land and became wealthy. The

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

was rebuilt, demolishing the ancient

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 ...

, although the cellars of the early medieval house remain. The house was substantially rebuilt again, in

Palladian style Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

, for Sir Walter Calverley-Blackett, 2nd Baronet by architect Daniel Garret, before passing to the Trevelyan family in 1777. After

Pauline Jermyn Pauline, Lady Trevelyan (''née'' Paulina Jermyn; Trevelyan, Raleigh (1978); ''A Pre-Raphaelite Circle'', p.7; Chatto & Windus, London; 1st edition. 25 January 1816, Hawkedon, Suffolk13 May 1866, Neuchâtel, Switzerland) was an English painte ...

married the naturalist Sir

Walter Calverley Trevelyan Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan Geological Society, FGS FRSE (31 March 1797 – 23 March 1879) was an English naturalist and geologist. Life He was born in 1797 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the eldest son of Trevelyan baronets, Sir John Trevelyan, fi ...

, they began hosting literary and scientific figures at the Hall. As a cultural centre, Wallington visitors included members of the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossett ...

Sir Charles Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet (28 October 1870 – 24 January 1958) was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party, and later Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, politician and landowner. He served as Secretary of State for Education ...

inherited the property from his father,

Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, (20 July 1838 – 17 August 1928) was a British statesman and author. In a ministerial career stretching almost 30 years, he was most notably twice Secretary for Scotland under William Ewart Gladstone and ...

, in 1928. He was a leading member of Liberal and Labour governments in the late 1920s. Charles was married to "Molly", Lady Mary Trevelyan.

Description

The house is set in 100 acres (40 ha) of rolling parkland, which includes a wooded dene (valley), ornamental lakes, lawns, and a recently refurbished walled garden. The ceilings in the dining and drawing rooms are decorated in the

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

style by the Italian artist,

Pietro Lafranchini Pietro is an Italian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: People * Pietro I Candiano (c. 842–887), briefly the 16th Doge of Venice * Pietro Tribuno (died 912), 17th Doge of Venice, from 887 to his death * Pietro II Can ...

. Attractions inside the house include the desk where

Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was an English historian, poet, and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster General between 184 ...

, brother-in-law of Sir Charles Trevelyan, wrote his ''

History of England The territory today known as England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BB ...

'', a large collection of antique dollshouses, and eight

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s in the central hall depicting the history of

, painted by

William Bell Scott William Bell Scott (12 September 1811 – 22 November 1890) was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vi ...

. The National Trust also own the estate of which the house is a part; the produce from these farms, as well as others in the region, was sold in a farm shop on site. The farm shop closed in 2012.

Wildlife

In July 2023, a family of

beavers Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

was released in a enclosure on a tributary of the Hart Burn in the centre of the estate. This is the third release of beavers at a National Trust property. In November 2023, the Vincent Wildlife Trust announced Wallington estate as one of their three Haven Sites for the Martens on the Move project. This project aims to encourage the natural recovery of

pine marten The European pine marten (''Martes martes''), also known as the pine marten, is a mustelid native to and widespread in most of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and parts of Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red Lis ...

populations through community action across England, Scotland and Wales. The project is facilitated by a £1.2 million grant from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. These initiatives are part of a long term project, called Wilder Wallington, to reintroduce native species of plants and animals to the estate and to encourage the restoring of peat and wetlands and other nature recovery schemes. One aim is to plant one million trees by 2030; some 115,000 have already been planted. Other animals being considered for reintroduction are water voles.

References

External links

Wallington information at The National Trust

The Blacketts of North East England

History

Description

Wildlife

See also

References

External links

Further reading