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• Miscellaneous documents
  • Newton Cap house plans (Ref: D/X 1154/1-2)

Catalogue Description

Records given

24 January 1997 Acc: 2423(D)

These plans were in the custody of an individual who worked for the firm of T.G. Page and Co., mainly concerned with the management of property, but their provenance is not known in detail.

The Newton Cap estate was owned, according to Conyers Surtees, by the family of Bacon and in 1806, the date of the drawings, was in the ownership of William Bacon Forster. On 15 January 1810, the estate was put up for sale and was bought by William Russell of Brancepeth Castle. It was subsequently sold in 1870 to Messrs. Stobart and Co., owners of Newton Cap Colliery, who, according to Conyers Surtees, "pulled down the old Hall. A gardener's house was built and the garden let to a tenant. The unfinished new Hall was also demolished." It is, of course, not known whether the house in the two drawings was ever built.

The identity of the architect is also pure speculation. The designs are signed 'W.A.' who may be William Atkinson of Bishop Auckland (c.1773-1839), although he moved to London in the 1790s. He did, however, add a gothic west tower to St. Anne's church in Bishop Auckland in c.1800 and undertook repairs to the central tower of Durham Cathedral in 1809-1812.

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