Hebburn Hall

The Ellison family acquired the manor of North Hebburn in 1658, South Hebburn in 1777. An estate plan of 1768 shows a symmetrical c-plan house with elaborate formal gardens to the south east. The building is quite unlike the hall of 1790, probably a Palladian style house of later seventeenth century or early eighteenth century date. Fordyce gave a date of 1700 for the rebuilding of Hebburn Hall. The hall of 1790, possibly by William Newton, is a typical neo-classical country house, originally entered from the south-west. Inside are plaster ceilings, probably the ones that Joseph Rose was paid for in 1792. Alterations of 1819 by Dobson for Cuthbert Ellison. Probably include the fine Venetian door and round arched windows in the north-west front. The hall was used as an infirmary between 1897 and 1976. In the First World War it was in use as an auxiliary hospital by the Joint War Committee (British Red Cross and the Order of St John of Jerusalem). The committee was ordered to raise and organise Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) trained in First Aid and Nursing. The nurses were a mixture of qualified nurses and volunteers (mostly middle-class women). Many hospitals were set up in large houses on loan to the Red Cross during the war. VAD hospitals received the sum of 3 shillings per day per patient from the War Office. Hebburn Hall was run by the 18th Durham VA Hospital Unit. During the use of the building as an infirmary an external fire escape was added, stud partition walling and additional fireplaces on the second floor. Hebburn Hall lay abandoned and vandalised between 1976 and 1978. Then it was leased to the Freemasons who restored and renovated the building, including the original symmetrical arrangement of the openings. The Masonic Lodge closed in 1999, when the Hall was purchased to be converted for residential use. The west side of the Hall was converted into 3 dwellings in 2001. The east side is being converted [2007].