Owner wants to see hall open to public

Sep 19 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

THE owner of Seaton Delaval Hall spoke for the first time yesterday of his desire to see the 18th Century mansion preserved for the people of the North East and visitors to the region.

Lord Delaval Hastings is selling the Northumberland hall following the death in April last year of his father, who was 95, and in December of his mother, aged 88.

He has given the National Trust first option on the hall and 500 surrounding acres .

The trust will put up £6.9m – if another £6.3m can be raised by Christmas.

“I really, really hope that the trust can succeed in this. I am sure that if there is a will, it can be done,” said Lord Hastings.

His parents occupied the west wing of the hall, but Lord Hastings lives on his organic farm at Holt in Norfolk with his wife and three children, aged 12 to 17.

The farm, whose Back to the Garden outlet has been hailed the best farm shop in Norfolk, is near the 17th Century Melton Constable Hall, which was the seat of the Astley family, who inter-married with the Delavals.

But although his roots are in Norfolk, Lord Hastings has strong ties with Seaton Delaval Hall.

He was born in Newcastle on April 25, 1960. The family lived in London and then Norfolk, and he remembers the journeys to Seaton Delaval Hall for the school holidays.

“I can recall the enormously long journey from London in a Commer van, and the freezing conditions in the hall, where paraffin heaters were used,” he said. “The coal mines were still operational then in the area and it was a very different landscape to that which I was used to in London.

“But there was a great sense of space and freedom in the hall and the gardens, and the local people were very friendly.”

Lord Hastings was married in 1987 at the Church of Our Lady, adjacent to the hall, where he held the reception.

“I do have an attachment to Seaton Delaval Hall,” he said.

It is the stronger because of the efforts his father invested in saving the hall.

Lord Hastings’ parents moved from Norfolk to Seaton Delaval in 1990.

Melton Constable Hall had been sold in 1948 by Lord Hastings’ grandfather to the Duke of Westminster.

“Perhaps because Melton Constable Hall had gone, my father felt very strongly that Seaton Delaval should be preserved,” said Lord Hastings.

“He carried out a lot of restoration work at a time when many houses were falling into dilapidation.

“He felt a definite mission and put his heart and soul into it.”

When Lord Hastings inherited the hall, he had a decision to make.

“I am well ensconsed in Norfolk with a business to run. My view was that to let Seaton Delaval Hall lie empty was a wasteful indulgence when it could be better used by being open to the public.

“The question then was to find an organisation which could take it on. I mulled over several possibilities and the National Trust seemed to be the best choice.”

That choice was not, as Lord Hastings says, “commercially the optimum route for me to take”. But he recognises the immense potential of the hall and grounds for south east Northumberland, neighbouring Tyneside and for the wider region’s portfolio of major attractions.

“I think people like to travel into the Northumbrian countryside and visit places like Cragside,” he said.

“But Seaton Delaval Hall is on the doorstep of so many.”