Benton Hall

HER Number

1867

District

Newcastle

Site Name

Benton Hall

Place

Longbenton

Map Sheet

NZ26NE

Class

Domestic

Site Type: Broad

House

Site Type: Specific

Country House

General Period

POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence

Demolished Building

Description

Benton Hall was sometimes known as Little Benton Hall, Benton White House and Benton House. It was built c.1760 (the wings may have been added later) by Thomas Bigge, a coal-owner and brother of William (d. 1758), High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1751. Between about 1854 and 1858 the estate was converted into a public Botanical Gardens. The house lay north and west respectively of the present Coast Road and Red Hall Drive; it was unoccupied c.1900-1929 and demolished shortly after this for residential development.

Easting

427760

Northing

566990

Grid Reference

NZ427760566990

Sources

<< HER 1867 >> T. Faulkner & P. Lowery, 1996, Lost Houses of Newcastle and Northumberland, p 9; W.G. Elliott and Edwin Smith, Bygone Days of Longbenton, Benton, Forest Hall, West Moor and Killingworth, p 31