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The Architectural Development of Blagdon Hall, Northumberland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Richard Pears
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Extract

Among the country houses of Northumberland several have remained in the hands of the same families for many generations, including Blagdon Hall, 15 km north of Newcastle upon Tyne, the home of Viscount Ridley’s family (Fig. 1). There are good documentary records for the estate, some dating from the thirteenth century, and detailed accounts from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, reflecting the continuity of ownership since that time. Examination of these documents and of eighteenth-century illustrations suggested that previously accepted dating of the house needed to be reassessed, and raised questions about sources of designs and the involvement of prominent architects and craftsmen in the evolution of the house. Further investigation revealed that the family and commercial networks of Blagdon’s eighteenth-century owners and their builders led to the adoption of the Blagdon design elsewhere in northeast England. This article will examine the remodelling of Blagdon Hall as an example of the history of English élite architecture in the provinces.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 53 , 2010 , pp. 77 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2010

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References

Notes

1 Hussey, Christopher, ‘Blagdon, Northumberland I: the Home of Viscount Ridley’, Country Life, 18 July 1952, pp. 188–91 Google Scholar; ibid., II, 25 July 1952, pp. 260-63; ibid., Ill, 8 August 1952, pp. 396-99.

2 Pevsner, Nikolaus and Richmond, Ian, The Buildings of England: Northumberland (Harmondsworth, 1957) p. 197 Google Scholar; revised edn, revised John Grundy, Grace McCombie and Peter Ryder (London, 1992), p. 189. The 1992 revision dates the house to c. 1735, adding, ‘incorporating a little of its C17 predecessor’.

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11 Dodds, John F., Bastions and Belligerents: Medieval Strongholds in Northumberland (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1999)Google Scholar contains comprehensive lists of fortifications in Northumberland including those listed in the Border surveys. Salter, Mike, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern, 1997), p. 114 Google Scholar, and Rowland, T. H., Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Warkworth, 1987), p. 76 Google Scholar, both state that a tower existed at Blagdon, but neither provide any reference to support this claim.

12 This map hangs on the secondary staircase at Blagdon. The angle between west and north ranges shown on the 1805 map of Blagdon is similar to that at the join between the hall (c. 1400) and the tower (c. 1500) at Clifton Hall, near Penrith (see Emery, Greater Medieval Houses, p. 202).

13 The painting is in Blagdon Hall.

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25 Dr M. W. Ridley, pers. comm., August 2009.

26 The painting, now part of the Copeland Collection, hangs in the Beacon Museum, Whitehaven. It was one of at least four with this title painted by Reed, each slightly different.

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37 Gibside Hall (undated, Durham Record Office D/St/E15/13/13); St Mary’s Church, Gateshead, in 1739 (DRO EP/Ga.SM 5/1, p. 439).

38 Hentie Louw and Robert Crayford, ‘A Constructional History of the Sash-Window c. 1670-C.1725 (Part 1)’, Architectural History, 41 (1998), p. 123.

39 Colvin, Biographical Dictionary, p. 921.

40 Woodhorn Museums and Archives (Northumberland Record Office: henceforth NRO), Ridley (Blagdon) Collection: ZRI 47/3 Cash book 1753-61. This contains payments for craftsmen, artists and tradesmen involved in rebuilding the house.

41 Beard, Geoffrey, Craftsmen and Interior Decoration in England, 1660-1820 (Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 253–54 Google Scholar.

42 NRO, Ridley (Blagdon) Collection: ZRI 47/3 Cash book 1753-61.

43 Leach, Peter, ‘Designs from a Practical Man: the Architecture of Daniel Garrett’, Country Life, 12 September 1974, pp. 694–97 Google Scholar; ‘A Pioneer of Rococo Decoration’, Country Life, 19 September 1974, pp. 766-69; ‘In the Gothick Vein’, Country Life, 26 September 1974, pp. 834-37; Leach, Peter, ‘Garrett, Daniel (d. 1753)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004 Google Scholar; online edn, January 2008 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/63115> [accessed 19 August 2009].

44 Tyne & Wear Archives Service, HO/RVI/2/1 Newcastle Infirmary House committee minutes 1751, Minutes of Special Court, 9 August 1751.

45 Morris, Robert, Rural Architecture: Consisting of Regular Designs of Plans and Elevations for Buildings in the Country (London, 1750), pl. 11 Google Scholar.

46 Regular payments to these individuals appear in the relevant family papers. For Blagdon Hall, see NRO, Ridley (Blagdon) Collection: ZRI 47/3 Cash book 1753-61. For Fenham Hall, see NRO, Blackett-Ord (Whitfield) Collection: 324/E/27 Fenham estate workbook 1742-47; NRO, Blackett-Ord (Whitfield) Collection: 324/E/12 Fenham Journal No. 1 1745-55. For Dunston Hill House, see NRO, Carr-Ellison (Hedgeley) Collection: ZCE/12/5 Cash book 1749-53. For Nunwick Hall, see NRO, Allgood (Nunwick) Collection: 43 (ZAL) Box 46.1 Journal 1745-46, Box 46.2 Journal 1746-47, Box 46.5 Journal 1748-49 and Box 46.6 Journal 1750-52. For the Newcastle Infirmary, see Tyne & Wear Archives Service: HO/RVI/2/1 Newcastle Infirmary collection: House committee minutes 1751-53.

47 NRO, Allgood (Nunwick) Collection: 43 (ZAL) Box 46.6 Journal 1750-52.

48 NRO, Allgood (Nunwick) Collection: 43 (ZAL) Box 46.6 Journal 1750-52.

49 Leach, Peter, ‘Paine, James (bap. 1717?, d. 1789)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2009 Google Scholar <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21131> [accessed 19 August 2009].

50 Colvin, Biographical Dictionary, p. 770; Leach, James Paine, p. 175.

51 NRO, Ridley (Blagdon) Collection: ZRI 47/3 Cash book 1753-61.

52 Alnwick Castle MSS: A Series of Sketches Views in Great Britain, the Continent and America 1772-78, Image no. 3397/84.

53 Leach, James Paine, p. 175.

54 NRO, Ridley (Blagdon) Collection: ZRI 47/3 Cash book 1753-61.

55 Hussey, ‘Blagdon’, pp. 189-91.

56 NRO, Ridley (Blagdon) Collection: ZRI 47/21 Cash book 1825-31; Hodgson, John, A History of Northumberland, in Three Parts, 3 vols in 7 (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1832), part 2 vol. 2, pp. 327–28 Google Scholar.

57 Hussey, , ‘Blagdon’, pp. 189–91 Google Scholar.

58 Colvin, , Biographical Dictionary, pp. 744–45 Google Scholar.