Wallington Hall, a Northumbrian Stately Home

An 18th Century Estate at the Eastern Edge of the Cheviot Foothills

Jun 1, 2009 Anthony Toole

History, art, architecture, woodlands, a walled garden (and a few oddities) are all gathered together on the National Trust's largest complete agricultural estate.

Enclosed by the wild moorlands of the Simonside Hills to the north, the Wanneys to the west and Shaftoe Crags to the south, Wallington appears as a small patch of cultivation at the head of the Wansbeck valley. It stands 20 miles to the north-west of Newcastle, a short distance from the main A696 road to Edinburgh.

History of Wallington Estate

In 1688, the Wallington estate was bought from Sir John Fenwick by Sir William Blackett, who rebuilt the existing house. Sir William's grandson, Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, carried out major extensions when he inherited the estate in 1728. The next wave of building was commissioned in 1849 by Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, the grandson of Sir Walter Blackett's nephew and heir, Sir John Trevelyan. This brought the house to its present-day appearance. The estate was given to the National Trust by Sir Charles Trevelyan in 1941, and contains fifteen farms, the house and gardens and the village of Cambo.

Courtyard and Carriage House

At the corner of the car park is a farm shop, stocked with local produce, much of it coming from the estate's farms. The entrance gate is crowned by a clock tower, and opens onto a grassy courtyard, adorned by limes and copper beech. To one side of the entrance is the carriage house. Dating from 1873, this contains a collection of horse-drawn vehicles, large and small. To the other side is a room illustrating the farming, woodland and wildlife of the estate and the National Trust's role in the use of sustainable energy.

Rooms and Furnishings of Wallington Hall

The rooms of the house surround the Central Hall, an ornately decorated space that was originally an open courtyard. It was re-designed in 1853 by Newcastle architect, John Dobson, and a glass roof added. The walls are covered with a series of eight large paintings by William Bell Scott depicting the history of Northumberland, from the building of Hadrian's Wall to the triumph of Victorian industry. Above these are smaller portraits of eminent Northumbrians.

The rooms are fully furnished and display the history and wealth of the Trevelyan family. The Dining Room contains a china cabinet and silverware, which includes a silver samovar. In the Drawing Room are two grand pianos, tapestries, porcelain Japanese vases, a huge, porcelain Chinese fish bowl and plasterwork walls designed in 1741 by Pietro Lafrancini. The library houses more than 3000 books about history, politics and the classics, and contains rare, early cookery books. The parlour has original paintings by Turner, Ruskin, Rossetti and Burne-Jones.

Collections and Curiosities at Wallington

Another room houses several large dolls houses, bequeathed to the National Trust by Mrs Bridget Angus, from Corbridge. In the same room is a collection of toy soldiers representing the armies of the Battle of Waterloo. These belonged to the Trevelyan brothers, Robert, Charles and George, the last of whom became one of the twentieth century's major historians.

Leading from the balcony of the Central Hall are bedrooms, a nursery full of toys, and a museum containing a cabinet of curiosities collected from around the world by Lady Jane Wilson, whose daughter married Sir John Trevelyan in 1791.

Wallington's Walled Garden

At the far end of the lawn in front of the house is a set of carved griffins' heads. Beyond these, a footpath leads through mature, mixed woodland, past a lake to another Wallington glory, the Walled Garden. Dating from 1760, this has undergone several reincarnations, and is set on different tiers. The National Trust took over the garden in 1958 and re-designed it to contain lawns, flower-filled borders, streams, ponds and various hidden alcoves. Its lower reaches are looked over by a hilly field full of quietly grazing cattle and sheep.

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