There are few venues in the North East that come with the experience, pedigree and knowledge that Ramside Hall Hotel has when it comes to events.

That’s why we have chosen it as the venue for the first BUSINESSiQ Awards in the Bishops Suite on Friday 28th April 2023, hosted by Alfie Joey.

The County Durham hotel has hosted many of the region’s most prestigious dinners, ceremonies and fundraisers and John Adamson, owner of Ramside Estates, say he is delighted to add the BUSINESSiQ Awards to that list.

Read more: Details and categories for the first BUSINESSiQ Awards

“We are very excited that the very first BUSINESSiQ Awards are going to be held at Ramside,” he said.

“We know it’s going to be a very special night, celebrating the amazing businesses which operate across the North East and we will pull out all of the stops to ensure it’s a night to remember.”

All of the venues that make up Ramside Estates host events of all shapes and sizes, from wedding celebrations to launch parties, from awards to product launches.

Ramside’s sister hotel, Hardwick Hall, is equally renowned as a first class venue, annually erecting a huge marquee which is home to such highly popular nights as the annual Lobster Ball.

The Northern Echo: Our host, Alfie Joey, and venue, Ramside HallOur host, Alfie Joey, and venue, Ramside Hall (Image: Newsquest)

Ramside Estates also owns Bowburn Hall, a country house not far from the centre of Durham, and The Fed, the former Lancastrian Suite near Gateshead.

The company also runs Ramside Event Catering, which looks after the food and drink operations at many of the region’s top festivals and charity balls, creating exciting experiences thanks to its military style operation.

But Ramside Hall Hotel is the flagship for the company, having benefited massively from huge investments in recent years.

From the creation of the award-winning spa with its five pools, treatment suits, state-of-the-art gym and restaurant, to is second championship golf course, the hotel has attracted visitors from across the globe.

In recent years the hotel has also created four three-bedroomed treehouses and a handful of smaller, A-frame versions.

Ramside Hall Hotel and all of its sister venues continue to make their mark on the hospitality industry across the North East, a fact that those who attend the BUSINESSiQ Awards will be able to see for themselves.

Next April the hall will be the venue for a black tie Champagne reception with a three-course meal, entertainment, guest speakers and our awards for those who have gone above and beyond to make the North East the amazing place it is.

So we need your help, by telling us about the people and businesses that have most impressed you. Let us know what they are doing and why they deserve to be in the spotlight.

  • Scan the code at the top of this page to nominate someone, or CLICK HERE

The Northern Echo: The stunning Ramside treehouseThe stunning Ramside treehouse (Image: Press release)

The Northern Echo’s Chief Features Writer Chris Lloyd says the history of Ramside goes back to medieval times.

He writes: The hotel is on the site of a farm called Ramside Grange, which in medieval times belonged to the monastic establishment of Kepier Hospital.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, Ramside Grange was sold to private owners and for 250 or more years, it was owned by some of the wealthiest families ion the district.

In 1769, it was bought by John Pemberton, who lived at Bainbridge Holme Hall, in Sunderland. The Pembertons also owned Hawthorn Tower near Easington and had large coal-owning interests in the east of Durham. They are principally famed for opening Sunderland’s Monkwearmouth Colliery in the 1830s, which was known as Pemberton Main Colliery. For a time, it was the deepest colliery in the world, and it was the last colliery in the Durham coalfield to close, in 1994. Now it is the site of Sunderland Football Club’s Stadium of Light.

In 1820, using coal money, Thomas Pemberton substantially enlarged the old grange – keeping a few of its old walls – and creating a new hall, which he called Belmont Hall. Like Beau Repaire and Bearpark on the other side of the city, “Belmont” sounds attractively French and is redolent of a fine lofty location.

The reality was that the hall was surrounded by coalmines, wagonways and railways. From 1836 into the 1870s, there was Belmont Colliery right next to the Pembertons’ ice house, with a terrace of houses and a pub, the Belmont Tavern, next to it.

The Pemberton family, who were later called Stapylton Grey Pemberton, left Belmont Hall in 1947 and in 1963, the hall became a hotel, reverting to its original name of Ramside. It is now the largest privately-owned luxury hotel in County Durham, with two 18-hole golf courses roaming over its 350 acres.

 

Read next: