Historic Homes and Gardens

Northumbria is packed with lots of genuinely unusual and interesting stately homes and glorious gardens. Here are just a few to whet your appetite - just pick your century!

Before the Civil War

On Wearside, Washington Old Hall was the 12th and 13th century home of the ancestors of the USA’s first president, George Washington. Today, it’s furnished as a Jacobean manor house set in pretty terraced gardens.

The Seventeenth Century

Built In 1688, Wallington Hall was a merchant’s show-palace. Decorated lavishly by Italian craftsmen, the Hall also houses a collection of fine porcelain and dolls’ houses.

The Age of Elegance

Northumberland’s Belsay Hall is a splendid example of a Georgian country house, built in the neo-classical style. Ormesby hall near Middlesbrough has fine eighteenth century bedrooms, and an intriguing Victorian laundry.

Victorian splendour

Cragside house at Rothbury is an industrialist’s indulgence, with a grand long gallery, amazing marble-work and the reputation of being the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. Further south, the Josephine and John Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle is a real treasure house of art, in a splendid reproduction French chateau.

In an English Country Garden

If you enjoy gardens, you’ll find some real treats in Northumbria. Choose from the contrasting appeal of the magical quarry garden at Belsay hall, the rhododendrons of Cragside, the university of Durham’s exotic botanical garden, or the showpiece gardens of Kirkley hall.

A walk in the grounds

Imagine yourself as the landed gentry of another century and take a walk on the Gibside estate in the Derwent valley. You can visit the Palladian chapel, and stroll through an 18th century park landscaped by capability brown, to view the romantic ruins of the Bowes family mansion. Other attractive walks include Allen Banks woods near Bardon Mill or a breezy climb up to the Penshaw Monument near Sunderland.

Living history

Nowhere really brings history to life like Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum. Recreated across 300 acres are Pockerley manor, an Edwardian town, a colliery village and a farm. Here, you can ride the tram, the carousel or the omnibus once again; sit in a turn-of-the-century pub; visit the dentist and go down the mine. A chance to decide if those really were "the good old days"!