Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland

Posted on 9 January 2025 by Katrina

Seaton Delaval Hall is a National Trust property in Northumberland which we visited back in October when we went on a north of England road trip. Parts of the house are really just a shell as there was a fire there in 1822, there was some reconstruction work done but there is no furniture in that part.

The rest of the house is grand though, I liked the staircases, there are two like this one. below. I took this from the bottom looking up.

We walked along this colonnade to get to the habitable part of the house.

Some unusual wall decorations in the shape of mirrors and eyes which reminded me of Elizabeth I’s dress which was embroidered with eyes – and ears too.

There’s a portrait of Henry VIII and …

Catherine Parr is close by.

I think that the National Trust uses the property as a sort of repository for many of their treasures. There are some cabinets like the one below, displaying early porcelain.

Warkworth Castle, Northumberland

Posted on 30 November 2024 by Katrina

So here we are back at Warkworth Castle in Northumberland, it’s a great place to visit but isn’t so accessible for disabled people like many of these places. It’s owned/run by English Heritage, it was owned by the Percy family in Tudor times. You can see my previous post here.

Parts of it are covered but others are open to the elements. I must say that the stonework looks in really good shape.

Below is quite a grand staircase.

But the stairs below aren’t for the faint hearted.

Below is a really lovely part of the castle which is roofed, it’s a sort of ante room and I can imagine people millling about in it chatting, and sitting on the window seats.

I really admire vaulted rooms although I’m always a wee bit nervous of them, I have to remind myself they’ve been good for centuries so are unlikely to fall on me!

I spotted this teeny wee iron lion rampant badge from the bottom of a flight of stairs, it seems to have been set above what looks like a stone sink, but it might have been a cupboard. The lion rampant was the Percy family’s emblem/badge, but is of course better known as Scotland’s emblem.

Below is a view of Warkworth village taken from just outside the castle. It’s a lovely wee place with plenty of eateries, but we were on our way further south so didn’t have much time to spend exploring the place, we spent so much time in the castle.

Warkworth Castle, Northumberland, England

Posted on 15 November 2024 by Katrina

A couple of weeks ago we were away in the north-east of England, just for a few days, seeing places we hadn’t visited before and catching up with old friends who live there. We had a great time, and the weather behaved itself beautifully, apart from heavy rain for about 15 minutes as we got to Seaton Delaval, an English National Trust property near Whitley Bay.

But it was Warkworth Castle that we visited first as we stopped off on our way down south. It’s a ruin, but a very impressive one. It was the home of the Percy family, I must admit that I didn’t realise that the Percys originated from Scotland with the first Earl being a son of King David of Scotland who gave it to his youngest son. That solves the mystery of why they have the Scottish symbol of the lion rampant everywhere. In fact when we were in a Carlisle bookshop I overheard two men talking about a local historian who believed that Scotland went all the way to the Lake District, and they agreed. One shopkeeper who enjoys holidays in Scotland told me that she thought that Scotland was like the Lake District – on steroids!

The setting of the castle couldn’t be better to my mind anyway, as you can see from the view below, through the remains of a large window.

There’s also a great view of the River Coquet from the other side of the castle.

There are really two separate ruins, with the one above being in much better condition than the one below as you can see.

I took quite a lot of photos, but I’ll leave it at that for the moment. If you ever find yourself in Northumberland and you enjoy a good castle/ruin you should definitely visit Warkworth, the village at the foot of the castle is very quaint, obviously a destination as it has lots of eateries.

The Church of Our Lady, Seaton Delaval, Northumberland

Posted on 7 November 2024 by Katrina

While we were in the north-east of England last month we visited Seaton Delaval Hall, which is quite an amazing place, part almost ruin and part stately home. The guide asked us if we were interested in seeing the ancient church, and he advised us to go straight there as that part of the estate closed at 4.00 pm.

The Church of Our Lady is as far as I can see just as it was when it was built, as far as the building is concerned anyway. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Durham in 1102. Although I’m not religious I appreciate the beauty and tranquility of the place. It’s a wee gem of Norman architecture, with a bit of Anglo Saxon apparently.

When reading the information sheet I was particularly amazed to see that they have a rare stained glass window depicting Prince Arthur Tudor, (below) Henry VIII’s older brother who of course died soon after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. How different things would have been if he hadn’t died young, without issue. No need for a Henry VIII and six wives! No Elizabeth I of England. No imprisoned and executed Mary, Queen of Scots.

It’s definitely worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood.

Furness Abbey, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria

Posted on 2 November 2024 by Katrina

I must admit that I hadn’t even heard of Furness Abbey before we were planning our trip to Barrow in Furness in Cumbria in September. Barrow is an industrial area nowadays but 900 years ago when the Abbey dates from it was obviously rural with the abbey being fabulously wealthy, owning a huge amount of land. Although it’s just a few miles outside the modern town of Barrow it still feels very rural.

The abbey was of course wrecked on the orders of Henry VIII at the time of the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1537. As you can see there’s some seriously heavy metalwork propping up some of the walls in the photo below.

There’s still a lot to see though and the ruins attracted the Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth.

With the arrival of the railway in 1847 it became a popular destination for tourists. If you look carefully at the photo below you can just see the top of a train going past, so it must have been easy for travellers to get to the abbey.

In the photo below you can still see the burn which supplied water to the abbey, presumably that is why it was situated here.

There’s a lot to see at Furness Abbey and as you can see we were lucky with the weather.

It’s definitely worth a visit if you are in that part of Cumbria. I was very pleasantly surprised at how scenic the Barrow in Furness area is and it’s not that far from the Lake District if you want to brave the hordes of modern day tourists!

Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s Garden, Lake District

Posted on 29 October 2024 by Katrina

The garden at Hill Top isn’t huge and I suspect that the vegetable garden hasn’t changed much over the years, although there are some decorations in it for children to spot. I think that Beatrix used her garden to illustrate some of her books, but most of my Beatrix Potter books had to be put into the paper/cardboard recycling after they were badly water damaged a few years ago, so I can’t compare them with my photos. If you click this link you will see some photos of the garden and house. As you can see from the photo I took back in early September the garden plants to the side of the house were more or less over.

I love the gate below which leads to the walled vegetable garden.

The two photos below were taken from the path which leads out of the property, going towards the shop. So you can have a sit down on one of the benches, if you are that way inclined.

These give you a bit of an idea of the surrounding area but if you click on the National Trust link near the beginning of this post you’ll get more of an idea of what the neighbouring houses look like.

Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s home

Posted on 23 October 2024 by Katrina

While we were in the Lake District last month we visited Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s home. We tried to visit it about ten years ago but didn’t realise that it doesn’t open on Fridays for some reason – and guess who visited it on a Friday! It was very busy as you can see from the photo below. Beatrix gifted the house to the National Trust, along with a lot of land when she died.

As soon as you get through that doorway you are in the room in the photos below. These china plates were painted by Beatrix’s father, you can see where she got her talent from.

This fireplace/range is on the opposite wall from the photo above. As you can see the ceiling has wallpaper on it too. The door to the right of the range is what we in Scotland call a press, a built in cupboard.

Another cupboard below.

The next room opens off the first room and strangely it has a door knocker on it, as if it was a front door.

Beatrix loved collecting pretty things, she certainly enjoyed what was the first home of her own as her parents objected to her having a life of her own. When her books became so popular she was well able to buy this house outright, at last she could do what she wanted. You can even look at what she had inside her little desk.

Then we went back into the first rooom again to go up the stairs. I must say that from the photos you don’t get the impression of how dim the light is in this room, in fact the photo that I took of the dresser to the right of the clock didn’t come out at all, annoyingly. Beatrix used some of her own furniture in her illustrations.

I’ll do another blogpost about the rooms upstairs.

The Hunterian, Glasgow, Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Posted on 6 October 2024 by Katrina

Back in August we visited The Hunterian in Glasgow, it’s the oldest public museum in Scotland. We hadn’t been there for quite a few years. They have a lot of original Mackintosh furniture on show, it was saved from a building that the couple had lived in and he had redesigned, but after their death the building was due to be demolished, luckily the contents were saved and stored until a new home was found for them.

The Hunterian is the perfect location. I took lots of photos but as his furniture tended to be either black or white I’m splitting the photos up.

As you can see today it’s the white interiors. They’re so light and airy.

The above were all in the bedroom. Below are from the living room.

If I’m recalling correctly the wall art above the fireplace below is just a copy of a work done by Margaret Macdonald. I think the originals deteriorated a lot over the years.

If you happen to be visiting Glasgow the Hunterian is a great place to see C.R. Mackintosh’s designs and if you have the time you might want to see his wonderful House for an Art Lover which was not built in his lifetime, but ony fairly recently to his plans. It’s situated in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

Blackwell, Arts and Crafts house, Lake District

Posted on 26 September 2024 by Katrina

So here we are back at Blackwell again, but we’re in a very different setting now. The hall is almost medieval in design and is quite dark. The architect deliberately designed the rooms so that you were moving from dark oak panelling through this corridor to light, very light indeed.

So much in this beautiful room is similar (ish) to Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House in Helensburgh. Again there are sitting neuks by the fireplace, perfect for curling up with a book. I’m fairly sure that the frieze at the top of the wall and the ceiling is papered with Lincrusta, a kind of wallpaper which incorporates plaster designs sandwiched between the paper. It’s on the ceiling too, a fairly inexpensive way of adding luxury to a room, I think you can still buy it today.

The corner cupboard below is flanked by two stylised trees, natural motifs are all around the house in the decor, particularly rowan berries, and apparently when the house was taken over after a long period of neglect there was a rowan sapling growing inside this cupboard!

I think all of the rooms have window seats.

But the white room has two window seats, one with a view of the garden, above and a great view of Lake Windermere below.

It’s such a shame that Blackwell was never a real family home, just a holiday house for a short time in the summer. The pottery in this room is by Willem de Morgan – it’s stunning.

Blackwell, an Arts and Crafts house, Lake District

Posted on 22 September 2024 by Katrina

When we were in the Lake District a few weeks ago one of the places on our list to visit was Blackwell, an Arts and Crafts house. I must admit that I hadn’t even heard of it until quite recently. It’s an absolute jewel.

Blackwell has always been a holiday home which is really sad, it would have made a wonderful family home although I suppose the winters in the Lake District can be quite grim. The house was designed by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott. It’s not far from Bowness on Windermere.

The photos above and below are of the Hall. The stained glass design of tulips and blue birds looks much better in reality.

The hall is a large room, you could easily hold a dance in it. The copper lighting is original as is the peacock frieze at the top of the walls. This is actually wallpaper which has been recently refurbished. As you can just see on the left there’s another cosy seating area.

We joined in a guided tour which was interesting. Some of the designs are very reminiscent of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, he and Baillie Scott were designing at around the same time and were often competing for the same commissions. Of course Baillie Scott was also of Scottish descent.

The hall is a bit of a mixture of Tudor style, with its oak panelling and early 20th century styling. The guide thought that the fireplace was a nod towards Art Deco although the house is a bit early for that, the Dutch Delft tiles around the fireplace seemed a bit incongruous in the setting, but they are attractive. Every house should have at least one window seat I think, and this house has a few. They are perfect for reading in but the scenery outside might be a bit too distracting.

Or you could sit in the window below, the light should be good anyway.

This part of the house is quite dark, it was deliberate, to contrast with the bright light of the rest of the downstairs, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Blackwell stands above Lake Windermere, below is a view from the driveway towards the lake.

Pining for the West

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Category Archives: Architecture