Lord Crewe Arms

The Lord Crewe Arms is a hotel incorporating the west cloister range of Blanchland Abbey, likely serving as an abbot's lodge, guest house, and kitchen. Its origins date back to the 13th and 15th centuries, with significant remodelling occurring in the mid-18th century. The building is constructed of stone with a stone slate roof, displaying elements in a Gothick style.

The west elevation is divided into three parts. The left is a three-storey tower, with a 15th-century heightening built upon earlier rubble foundations, featuring a shallow garderobe projection on the left side. The centre is an 18th-century stair extension, two storeys high and two bays wide. The right part is set back and also three storeys high, with two bays. A renewed door sits within a raised stone surround in the left bay of the centre part, and an old panelled door is located in the left bay of the right part, sheltered beneath a tall trefoiled arch formed from re-set medieval fragments. The tower has paired chamfered loops on the ground floor, and two-light mullioned windows with hoodmoulds above, with trefoiled lights in the upper windows. An embattled 18th-century parapet tops the tower. The centre and right parts have scattered window openings, with sash windows in raised, tooled stone surrounds, and two ogee-arched stair windows. The roof features a stepped and corniced ridge, and stepped end stacks.

The rear elevation is similar and includes a 13th-century moulded segmental arch that likely belonged to the canons’ lavatory, possibly re-set in its current location. Sill bands are present on the left, three-storey part. Sash windows are set in stone surrounds, some with ogee arches. The tower displays a 13th-century chamfered doorway, a 15th-century window with three trefoiled lights above, and two chamfered loops on the second floor, one of which is blocked.

Internally, the ground floor south room contains a large, chamfered segmental-arched fireplace flanked by doorways with depressed arched heads, the doorway on the left being re-set. A central room features a similar doorway and a large, restored segmental-arched fireplace with a smoking platform above a large open stack, alongside late medieval moulded ceiling beams. An 18th-century stone stair rises from the central room to a large hall with 18th-century panelling and fireplaces. The tower includes a barrel-vaulted basement and shouldered-arched doorways. A room above the basement has a chamfered doorway leading to a garderobe (now a cupboard), and old chamfered ceiling beams.

Historically, the range became the residence of the Forster family after the Dissolution of the Abbey. Thomas Forster, while awaiting trial at Newgate for his involvement in the 1715 rebellion, escaped with the help of his sister Dorothy and is believed to have hidden within the “priest's hole” before going into exile in France.