Nunwick, Simonburn

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

Mid- to late 18th-century landscape park, laid out along the banks of the North Tyne and set with picturesque eyecatchers.

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Nunwick lies 22 km north-west of Hexham, on the east side of the B6329, Chollerford to Wark road, on the west bank of the River North Tyne. The Great Field, which comprises the north park, slopes gently eastwards down to the River North Tyne, but falls more steeply southwards to Proctor's Burn. Proctor's Burn flows from west to east, centrally across the park and issues into the North Tyne 700 m east of the house. South of Proctor's Burn, Fairshaw Park rises gradually to the southern boundary, which is formed by a lane leading west/east at Longridge. The landform of the parkland is distinctive, consisting of broad, level terraces immediately adjacent to the deeply incised course of river and burn. Above the terraces, the undulating parkland rises up with its steeper slopes planted with groups of oak.

The house is set some 150 m from the west parkland boundary, on a level plateau sheltered on its west and from the public road (B6329) by a grove, The Beeches. Standing on the west edge of The Great Field, it thereby commands panoramic views eastwards across sloping lawns and the north park to the North Tyne, with Reiver Crag (150 m OSD) forming a landmark on the horizon.

Entrances and Approaches

The B6329, Chollerford to Wark road forms the west boundary of the park. The main entrance to Nunwick lies on its east side, directly opposite the road junction some 170 m east-north-east of Proctor's Bridge, leading to the estate village of Simonburn. A gateway (c 1800, listed grade II) with end piers and linking quadrant-plan walls marks this west entrance into Nunwick. The approach then leads 230m through woodland to the main entrance front, the south facade of Nunwick.

A second approach leads into the park from the south-east at Longridge. This approach leads across Fairshaw Park, crossing Proctor's Burn by a sandstone bridge (early C19, listed grade II) 450 m south-east of Nunwick, then westwards, in part along the north bank of the Burn, and up the hillside to the south front.

Simonburn Castle (scheduled ancient monument, listed grade II), outside the registered area, can no longer be seen from the grounds of Nunwick, due to the intervening tree canopy. When initially laid out, the entrance to Nunwick was aligned on the ruins of the Castle, a ruined C13 tower house 1.5km to the south-west, rebuilt in part in 1766 to act as an eyecatcher at the end of a new avenue.

Principal Building

Nunwick (listed grade II*) was built c 1745-52. Daniel Garrett has been suggested as the designer, although no documentary evidence of this survives (CL 1956). A series of interior alterations, an entrance porch, and dining-room bay were added by Ignatius Bonomi c 1829. A service court is enclosed to the north-west of the house by ranges; the southern has a clock tower with cupola on an arcade of Tuscan columns.

The Stables (1798-9, listed grade II*) lie to the west of the public road at Townhead, 80m north of the main entrance (outside the area here registered).

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

A ha-ha (mid C18, listed grade II) encloses Nunwick and its c 6ha pleasure grounds from the park to the east. Built of dressed sandstone, it forms a serpentine wall 1.5-2m high, curving gently southwards from the north-east corner of The Beeches plantation to enclose Nunwick and ending c 50m south-east of the south-east corner of the walled garden.

The pleasure grounds form a series of formal walks laid out axially around the walled garden. On the east side of the walled garden a long walk, oriented north/south, is terminated at its north end by a 2m spiral column, probably Jacobean, set on a medieval base (listed grade II). To the south of the walled garden and set against the outside of its southern wall, is a Camellia House. The south wall shows indications of having been a heated wall. This may date to c 1800, on the basis of the internal sandstone dressings of the entrance, which match the pattern and form of the west entrance gateway (see above). The Camellia House, housing a magnificent, mature, specimen red camellia, forms the centrepiece of an open lawn, once a formal garden and now laid to grass with specimen shrubs. A line of mature Irish yew encloses this area on its east side.

A walk leads south of the walled garden and through a field gate into an informal woodland garden laid out along the banks of Proctor's Burn. An C18 stone well-head, re-erected and relocated from Hermitage, Northumberland (1990s), lies to the south of this entrance. The walk leads across a memorial bridge (2000) over Proctor's Burn to the Old Kennels (listed grade II). These, gothic in style with pointed doorways and windows and battlemented walls, were built to act as an eyecatcher when seen from the house. A datestone is inscribed 'LA 1768', for Lancelot Allgood, and the building complex includes a kennel-man's house, which was occupied until the 1930s (Mrs Allgood pers comm, 2002). Although now a roofless shell (2002), the main kennel block survives as a picturesque landscape feature. A central stone pool stands in the courtyard of the kennels, on an axis with the entrance front of the house.

The woodland garden stretches from the Old Kennels some 100m eastwards to a sharp bend in the course of the Burn, terminating at its eastern limits at a rustic timber bridge.

Kitchen Garden

The brick-walled garden of c 0.4ha in extent lies 170m south-west of Nunwick Hall. It is divided by cross-paths and set with a central range of glasshouses.

Park

The park extends to c 55ha to the east and south of Nunwick. Laid out in the 1760s, it has changed little. It is enclosed by shelter belts: along its west side by The Beeches, and to the south-west by Turnbull Plantation and Horsleyhill Plantation. East of these plantations, the parkland is planted with mature stands of beech, oak, and sycamore, with groups of trees concentrated on the steeper slopes leading down to the lower terraces. On its east side the parkland is enclosed by Boat Banks and The Lineum (outside the area here registered), plantations along the banks of the North Tyne.

Maps

• OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1862, published 1866; 2nd edition surveyed 1896

Description written: January 2002

Amended: March 2003

Edited: July 2003