Redworth Hall

The present Redworth Hall was built in 1693 by George and Eleanor Crosier. There is a memorial inscription in nearby Heighington Church in their honour.An historical, topographical and descriptive view of the county palatine of Durham, 1844, p. 165. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4toHAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22eleonora+uxor+Georgii+Crosyer%22&pg=PA165 Online reference] George Crosier (1637-1717) was the son of a wealthy landowner. He married Eleanor Harrison, daughter of John Harrison of Sunderland and had five daughters who were his co-heirs.A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol 2, 1835, p. 659. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RgpBAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22george+crosier%22+newbiggin&pg=PA659 Online reference] Their youngest daughter Jane Crosier (1671-1710) who married Edward Surtees (1663-1744) brought Redworth Hall into the Surtees family.

File:Robert Surtees 1694 to 1785.jpg

Their eldest son Robert Surtees (1694-1785) was the owner of Redworth Hall for forty years. In 1744 he married Dorothy Lambton, second daughter of Thomas Lambton of Hardwick.A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 1837, p. 658. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KxdVAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22robert+surtees%2C+esq+of+Redworth%2Cborn+at+Newbiggin%22&pg=PA658 Online reference] In the same year as his marriage Robert made substantial alterations and additions to the Hall and added a rear wing.

The couple had two daughters Dorothy and Jane. In 1769 Jane married her cousin Lieutenant Crosier Surtees (1740-1803).A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 1837, p. 658. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KxdVAAAAcAAJ&dq=redworth+hall+1744+surtees&pg=PA658 Online reference] When her father Robert died in 1785 Redworth Hall was left to Crosier. However Crosier was a drunkard and womaniser and in about 1800 Jane left him. He moved into the house of his mistress in Pennington Rake and had several more children. Suddenly in 1803 he died when he was returning on his horse, in a drunken state from a banquet with Lord Barnard in Raby Castle. On the moors he tumbled from the saddle, fell into the water, and froze to death.Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 1984, p. 188. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eEciAQAAIAAJ&q=4+surtees Online reference] In the following year Jane married the Reverend William Sturges of Magdalene College, Cambridge.The Monthly Magazine, 1904, p. 354. [https://books.google.com/books?id=omQ3AQAAMAAJ&dq=sturges+%22jane+surtees%22&pg=PA354 online reference]

Redworth Hall was inherited by Crosier’s eldest son Robert Surtees (1782-1857). In 1811 he married Elizabeth Cookson (1783-1847) and the couple had four children, three sons and a daughter. Their eldest son Robert Lambton Surtees (1812-1863) inherited the house in 1857 but he died six years later in 1863. Because he had not married and had no descendants the property was then passed to his younger brother Henry Edward Surtees.

Henry Edward Surtees (1819-1895) added the Jacobean style spiral stone staircase and galleried Baronial Hall in the early 1890s.“REDWORTH HALL, A Potted History” [https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.955170864547431.1073741831.112362882161571&type=3 Online reference] In 1843 he married Eliza Snell Chauncey and had two daughters but unfortunately she died in 1857. He then married in 1870 Mary Isabella Adams and had two sons.Peerage website [http://thepeerage.com/p4913.htm#i49123 Online reference] He was in the 10th Hussars for some years in 1864 was elected as a Member of Parliament. The 1881 Census shows him living at Redworth Hall with his second wife Mary Isabella who is 30 years his junior, three of his younger children, a governess, a ladies maid, a butler, a footman, a nurse and three house servants.

When he died in 1895 the house was inherited by his eldest son Henry Siward Balliol Surtees (1873-1955). In 1898 he married Helen Winifred Muriel Thomson only child of John James Thomson of Camphill, County Renfrew.Visitation of England and Wales, 1919, p. 201. [https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl19howa/page/200 Online reference] The couple had a son and two daughters. They divorced in 1909 and Henry later married in 1932 Emma Veronica Cunliffe.The Peerage website. [http://www.thepeerage.com/p30657.htm#i306566 Online reference]

Following a period of occupation by a residential school the house was converted to a hotel operated by The Hotel Collection.

The building was reputed to be haunted by a child walking along the corridors. Folklore has it that Lord Surtees had his mentally ill child chained to the fireplace whose cries of anguish can still be heard. It also tells the story of the peer's affair with his scullery maid, who committed suicide by throwing herself down the staircase when his wife discovered she was pregnant.{{cite news|title=Cricketers confront 'hotel ghost'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4098556.stm|publisher=BBC|date=16 June 2005}}

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• [https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1121213&resourceID=5 English Heritage, description of listed building]
• [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/163588 Coat of Arms of Surtees at Redworth Hall by Geograph]
• A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland; Sir Bernard Burke; 4th ed., pt. 2 (1863) p. 1459 Surtees of Redworth. Google Books

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• [https://www.redworthhalldurham.co.uk/ Redworth Hall Hotel website]

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Category:Grade II listed buildings in County Durham

Category:Country houses in County Durham

Category:Heighington, County Durham