Report - Stately Home/Hall - Teeside/Darlington area

[Andy]

Not sure of the exact location of this one as I wasn't doing the driving but I'll find out - It's near a small village anyway. Huge house, with 4 floors (including basement) and an attic, most of the upper floor rooms are now empty. Has apparently been a nursing home and a monastery/religious school type thing in the past, There's still evidence remaining of both so that sounds about right. It has been badly modernised in the past but there's still plenty of original character and features remaining.

Front of the building:

Main Hall. impressive stonework and marble:

One of the living rooms, complete with baths:

Main stairway:

Impressive stained glass window:

Attic was huge, with loads of corridoors leading off to other sub-rooms.

Conservatory/Sun lounge slightly overgrown...

Lift, not working sadly:

Basement pictures to follow.

 

[acro]

I don't know if people are still Interested in this post, but just incase, this property has been developed into a lovely 5 star hotel/spa/country club, much nicer now that the original director and much of his team have been let go!

Its name is Rockliffe Hall Hotel and Spa, the little village it is in, is called Hurworth-On-Tees.

History of the original building as follows:

Dating back to the 18th century, Rockliffe Hall is steeped in North Eastern history, with stories of its past owners and events offering a glittering insight into its past.


Original plans for the hall date back to 1774, but it wasn’t until after the turn of the century that the hall and the estate started taking shape.

Records from the 1820′s list it as being known as Pilmore House. Back then the Pilmore Estate belonged to local historian Robert Surtees of Redworth, and was habited – around 1836 – by his more famous cousin, landscape painter Thomas Surtees Raine.

The current site we now know as Rockliffe Hall came under the ownership of Alfred Backhouse and major developments began. The estate consisted of three separate buildings: the mansion house, Pilmore Farm and Hurworth Grange (to the west of the farm.

Soon after gaining ownership, Backhouse swiftly commissioned fellow Quaker, and relative by marriage, Alfred Waterhouse to rebuild and re-landscape much of the main building and the estate. It was during this period that Pilmore House first became recognised as the Rockliffe Hall Estate.

Lord Southampton bought the estate and lived there on and off until 1948. A keen cricketer and sportsman, he formed the Rockliffe Park Cricket Club and played on a pitch which still exists in the same site today.

The estate was bought by the Brothers of St John of God and converted into a hospital. Some 18 years later, it came under compulsory purchase by Durham County Council and used as a community centre.

Rockliffe Hall had a brush with stardom and parts of the grounds were used as the backdrop for some scenes from the Michael Caine hit ‘Get Carter’.

In 1903 and again in 1974, some of the buildings were badly damaged by fire.

After standing empty for several years Rockliffe Park was bought by Middlesbrough Football Club. Its new owners have since established a new centre for football training facilities that matches its desire to be a top Premiership outfit challenging for major honours.

The first greens were sown for the Rockliffe Hall championship golf course.

The resort opened its doors as a luxury hotel, golf and spa resort on 23rd November 2009.

The reason I know so much of this site is that I worked as an electrician during the construction of the hotel and was then employed by the hotel for a couple of years! I have heard many ghost stories from many people concerning this site too!