Benwell Grange

The Benwell Grange estate was established on half of Swans Well Field purchased from the neighbouring Benwell House estate in 1858. The estate was bought by Benjamin Carr Lawton, a civil engineer and partner in the firm of Rush & Lawton, who built Tynemouth Pier (HER2065). The mansion house was likely built prior to 1865 and the estate further expanded when the remainder of Swans Well Field was purchased in 1870.
The mansion house is shown on a picture from the West Newcastle Picture History Collection and supplied to the HER by I. Farrier. Benwell Grange was constructed in sandstone ashlar with a slate roof set within a small garden and surrounded by trees. There appears to be a lodge at the entrance on Benwell Lane shown in the background.
The 1871 Census shows that Benwell Grange was occupied by George Angus (a leather merchant) who lived on the estate with his family until 1877. From 1878 to 1897, Ralph Brown, a director of Lambton & Co, Bankers of Grey Street, resided at the Grange along with two family members: Edward S Bilton, aged 3, and Claude TB Bilton, aged 2, as recorded in the 1891. From 1897, the estate was owned by John Ewen McPerson who lived there along with his family until 1912. Farrier proposes that McPherson retained ownership of c.13 acres of open fields of the combined Benwell Grange estate and only sold the house and 2 acres of surrounding land in 1917 for the Joseph & Jane Cowen Training School for Maimed Soldiers & Sailors.
In 1920, the Training School and its grounds were purchased by the Trustees of The Royal Victoria School for the Blind and converted into a hostel for blind girls. The hostel and a technical school, built in 1935, operated until 1954. The property and land was sold to John Colman of W.J. Colman & Sons, poulterers of the Grainger Market, in 1955. They retained the property until 1965 when it was sold by Wm. Leech (Builders) Ltd for development. The mansion house was demolished in 1968. The estate lodge remained intact and occupied until 1971 when the land was taken over by The North British Housing Association. The housing associated demolished the Lodge and the Technical School and the built the flats which currently occupy the site. At present, the only original features which were associated with the estate are the stone boundary walls and the mature trees.