Blagdon Hall

Blagdon Hall (grid reference NZ21557705) is a privately owned country mansion near Seaton Burn, Northumberland which has Grade I listed building status. It belongs to Dr the Hon Matt Ridley, chairman of Northern Rock in the years leading to the bank's near collapse from 2004-7, when it became the first British bank in 150 years to suffer a bank run and had to be bailed out by he government.

The estate has been in the ownership of the White Ridley family since 1698.

The hall was built in two phases between about 1720 and 1752 by Matthew White and his son Sir Matthew White, whose sister Elizabeth married Matthew Ridley (1719–1778), four times Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was substantially enlarged in the nineteenth century to designs by architects John Dobson and Ignatius Bonomi. Some of these additions were removed following a fire in 1944.

The gardens were extensively remodelled the 1930s by Sir Edwin Lutyens, whose daughter Ursula was married to the third Viscount Ridley.

The stable block designed by James Wyatt in Palladian style in 1791 is Grade II* listed and a 19th-century folly in the grounds is Grade II listed. The gardens also contain the only surviving bronze of John Graham Lough's gigantic statue of Milo of Croton.

References

• Keys to the Past

External links

• Blagdon Estate