Out & About: 800 years of illustrious landmark and family home Crook Hall

THE year was 1217. Two years previously the Magna Carta had been signed., the preeminent document upon which our modern civil liberties stand. In 1217, Bishop Richard Marsh – a noted tyrant and close ally of King John – was appointed Bishop of Durham. It was also the year of the Battle of Lincoln, in which King Henry III managed to thwart a bid for the throne by the French Prince Louis, preventing what would have caused a cataclysm in the course of history.

Meanwhile, in Durham City, the seat of power for the whole of northern England, the nephew of an archdeacon became the first resident of the Manor of Sydgate – the property now known as Crook Hall.

It’s hard to believe that this remnant of such a long-forgotten past still stands; much less that it’s thriving, with up to 30,000 visitors a year streaming through its doors. The current incumbents, Keith and Maggie Bell, have made it a mecca second only to Durham Cathedral as a must-visit for tourists, yet in 1217, the hall fulfilled a very different role to that of a pleasant place to while away an afternoon.

In those days, life was harder, with those not fortunate enough to be born to privilege having to eke out an existence at the mercy of tyrannical governance. In Durham, Palace Green had been cleared of houses by Bishop Ranulf Flambard and Durham Cathedral – by then already an old building – was surrounded by a wall, in the words of a 12th Century chronicler, “so that the church should be affected neither by the contamination of their filth, nor the danger of their fires”.

The main road through the city and to the North led over the Wear about where Prebends Bridge now stands, up South Bailey and past the cathedral, and down into the city through a large gatehouse which stood where La Tasca is now (the remains of a large drum tower can be seen behind the restaurant). The marketplace was where it remains, and a steady stream of pilgrims would wend their way up to the cathedral to pray at St Cuthbert’s tomb.

For Keith and Maggie, it was the oldest part of Crook Hall – the Medieval manor to which Jacobean and Georgian wings were subsequently added – that first appealed. “It was not so much the history, but the age of the property,” says Keith. “It just looks so inviting. Once we walked into the Medieval hall, it was very much the ‘wow’ factor. It’s just totally stunning.”

Keith and Maggie bought the hall in 1995, intending it as both a base for Keith’s management consultancy business and a family home. Their children Ian and Amanda were 12 and 10 at the time and grew up there, both eventually leaving to live in London but returning to get married. Last year, Keith and Maggie marked their twenty-first anniversary at Crook Hall, which prompted Keith to write a book, Blood, Sweat and Scones: Two Decades of Crook Hall, due to be published in the autumn. In it, he looks back fondly at their tenure. “It’s a light-hearted look at the past 21 years,” he says. “In the appendix is a list of the owners of Crook Hall from 1217 and some of the key events of that time of ownership.”

Keith characterises the hall’s life over the centuries as one of practicality, in which it has served the needs of successive owners in terms of agriculture, industry and social standing. In the mid-1800s, when Canon James Raine was a tenant, it hosted such illustrious figures as William Wordsworth and John Ruskin; later, a wall was demolished to facilitate its use as a bottling plant.

Many owners have left their mark, including John Cassels, principal of Houghall Agricultural College, who took a keen interest in the gardens; and history enthusiasts the Hawgoods, who restored the Medieval hall. There’s reportedly even a remaining soul in the form of Crook Hall’s resident ghost, The White Lady.

Not all previous inhabitants have relished living there, however, with some only staying a few years, and Keith can fully understand why. Such a large, ancient property requires constant upkeep – with all the ensuing costs – and Keith and Maggie would never have taken it on without being mindful of this.

“We wouldn’t have bought it purely as a family home,” says Keith. “We bought it because we were searching for some premises for my business. Without opening it to the public, Maggie and I would be rattling around in the place.”

What the Bells couldn’t have foreseen was to what extent they would find themselves being drawn in to the life of the hall, resulting in them both, a few years ago, leaving their jobs to focus on running it. It is to them, in a very real sense, a labour of love.

“I often say to people that if I went to a training event there might be 15 people on the course and five of them wanted to be there – the other 10 had been sent by their managers,” says Keith. “This is just more interesting in some respects. If somebody had said to us there would be 25-30,000 visitors coming to Crook Hall in a year I would have said, ‘No way’.”

Keith and Maggie have left their own mark, with their biggest project to date being the two-year-old Garden Gate Café at the hall’s entrance. They have always felt like mere custodians – the latest in a long line of disparate owners – yet like many who have gone before, they have truly fallen under Crook Hall’s spell. “Sometimes we pinch ourselves and think, what an incredible place to live, and sometimes we kick ourselves and think, why are we here?” says Keith. “But it would be true to say we pinch ourselves more than we kick ourselves.”

• With thanks to Dr Charlie Rozier, Medieval History lecturer at Swansea University.

800th Birthday Festival

May 13-14, 10am-5pm

Step back in time to 1217, enjoy live entertainment and even get involved. Take a journey through the house, learning all about its history along the way.

Medieval Banquet

May 13, 7pm-11pm

Three-course medieval banquet in the medieval hall, ale or wine and a glass of mead with your meal. Entertainment, story-telling and medieval dancing. £38pp, booking essential.

W: crookhallgardens.co.uk