Tudhoe Hall Farm And Tudhoe Hall

TUDHOE HALL FARM AND TUDHOE HALL

A substantial house of early 17th-century date, probably incorporating earlier fabric, with late 17th-century, early 18th-century and 19th-century alterations and additions. The building was later subdivided into three units, now comprising two separate houses. At the time of survey, Tudhoe Hall was undergoing restoration.

The house is constructed of thinly-rendered sandstone rubble with quoins and ashlar dressings, beneath a Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. It follows a T-plan with an east addition.

The garden elevation displays two storeys arranged in six bays. A half-glazed door sits under a flat stone lintel at the left of the third bay. The first bay contains a 20th-century window under a similar flat stone lintel, as does the first floor of the second bay. Other bays contain sashes with glazing bars, some of late 19th-century date with 6 over 9 panes, and one with 12 panes. A blocked stone-mullioned 2-light window survives high in the ground floor of the second bay. The roof features gable copings at the ends and centre; the west gable has a plain kneeler, while the others have cyma-moulded kneelers. Ridge chimneys stand at the centre and right end.

The left return shows corners extended to align with an external stack. The whole of this section was raised in the early 18th century. Old wooden lintels flank the stack on each floor, with blocked openings of unknown function beneath them.

The rear elevation reveals a gabled porch to No. 22 at the east and a long rear wing to No. 24 extending from the second bay from the west. No. 22 exhibits irregular fenestration, including a small 8-pane sash lighting the stair and old brick blocking to a first-floor window in the bay adjacent to the wing. No. 24 features chamfered stone-mullioned windows, some renewed, both in the wing and in the westernmost bay.

The rear wing was raised and extended probably in the early 18th century. It contains small 2-light stone-mullioned stair windows, one with mullions removed, adjacent to the main range; larger chamfered mullioned 2- and 3-light windows, renewed; and an old boarded door with an eroded deeply-moulded surround and high corniced top panel on the east next to the stair bay. A plainer door on the west giving access to stairs is probably a 19th-century insertion. A stone-mullioned 2-light cellar window sits to the left of this door. Small chamfered windows in the gable peak flank a massive stepped external chimney stack at the end of the rear wing. All gable copings at the rear rest on cyma-moulded kneelers.

Interior

The west bay of the main range and all of the rear wing comprise No. 24. On the ground floor of the main range stands a wide, stucco-decorated early 17th-century beam bearing strapwork and simple flower patterns with a pecked background. A cyma-moulded cornice against this beam has been restored and copied to continue around the room. An open-well closed-string stair of the third quarter of the 17th century features a flat handrail with sloping sides, its top profile continuing across square panelled newels with simple pyramid drops. The balusters are fat and turned; the string and handrail are panelled; and most risers are panelled to the shallowest steps, with the lower steps renewed. The balusters are oak, other parts softwood.

The ground-floor room in the rear wing has cyma-stop-chamfered joists and beams. The fire beam to an altered fireplace has a recess at one side, probably a former cupboard. The room above contains a flat-arched wide brick lintel to a fireplace inserted in a wider elliptical-arched stone opening with eroded stops to the chamfered surround.

No. 22 occupies the entire front range. It comprises two bays of earlier build, with the whole second build. It contains an early 19th-century dogleg stair with a narrow ramped handrail on stick balusters and turned newels. Numerous 6-panel doors survive; one 17th-century door retains 8 flat panels. A first-floor room in the first bay of the second build is entirely panelled with moulded frames which formerly held painted canvas, supposedly bearing pictures of fruit and flowers and figures including a parson in a shovel hat hunting. Above the west door of this room, in line with the chimney, the panelling can be removed to reveal what is said to have been a priest's hole. A recusant family lived here in the 17th century.

The roof of the main range features elbowed upper-cruck trusses with short saddles and an altered ridge, with 2 levels of tusked purlins. The west truss is truncated and replaced with an A-truss, its details not clearly visible. One cruck protrudes into the wing stair well, suggesting the stair is an insertion contemporary with other alterations to the rear wing. The roof of the rear wing also displays elbowed crucks with 2 levels of trenched tusked purlins; carpenters' marks are incised in medium size, with X and V prefixed for each level of purlins.

Historical Context

Tudhoe Hall is said to have been the home of the Gubyons, of which Hugh in 1279 was Lord of Tudhoe, Sheriff and Keeper of Newcastle upon Tyne.