Capheaton Hall, near Wallington

Wallington Hall

Wallington is a country house and gardens located about west of Morpeth, Northumberland, England, near the village of Cambo. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1942, after it was donated by Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, the first donation of its kind...

, Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, is an English country house

English country house

The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

, the seat of the Swinburne Baronets

Swinburne Baronets

The Swinburne Baronetcy, of Capheaton in the County of Northumberland, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 26 September 1660 for John Swinburne in honour of the loyalty to Charles I of Swinburne's father and grandfather prior to and during the English Civil War. He...

 and the childhood home of the poet Algernon Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...

. It counts among the principal gentry seats of Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building.

The house, which was built for Sir John Swinburne in 1667-68 by Robert Trollope

Robert Trollope

Robert Trollope was a 17th century English architect, born in Yorkshire, who worked mainly in Northumberland and Durham.His work includes:-* Eshott Hall about 1660* Capheaton Hall 1667-8* Cliffords Fort, North Shields 1672* Callaly Castle 1676...

 of Newcastle, is a provincial essay in Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

, of local stone with a giant pilasters on high bases supporting sections of entablature dividing the main front into a wide central bay and flanking bays, under a sloping roof with vernacular flat-footed dormers. The estate was improved with a model farm in Gothic taste, designed by Daniel Garrett

Daniel Garrett

Daniel Garrett was a British architect who worked on the Burlington Estate, Culloden Tower,, Raby Castle, and Banqueting House.-History:Garrett started as a clerk of works, then in 1735 set up his own practice in the North of England...

 for Sir John Swinburne, ca 1746, one of the earliest examples of the Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

. The north front was rebuilt for Sir John in 1789-90 by a local architect, William Newton.

The house stands in rolling parkland in the manner of Capability Brown. The naturalistic setting of Sir Edward's Lake south of the house was designated a Site of Nature Conservation Importance in 1983 for the wintering and breeding wildfowl it harbours, as well as the fen and carr vegetation that has developed round its margins.

The linear estate village of Capheaton (population 50), built as a planned model village in the late eighteenth century, is sited on a ridge west of the Hall.

The Capheaton archives are at the Northumberland Record Office.