I’ve been saying that we should visit Seaton Delaval Hall for ages and I finally got Ma to agree as the 40-ish minute bus ride from Newcastle seemed like a better prospect than the drive from Amble did last year.

I didn’t bring my camera with me for this trip so all photos are from my phone..

The Hall was designed by John Vanbrugh, who designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, and while Seaton Delaval is not quite on that scale, you can see it’s in the same style (though one of the volunteers did point out that Blenheim has a bit more gilt – which scans for the Churchills!).

Unfortunately, Seaton Delaval didn’t last very long as a family home, building finished in 1728, it was destroyed by fire in 1822 and for 40 years had no roof.

It was sold to the National Trust in 2009 and there has been extensive work to stop it falling further into decay but there are no plans to fully restore it.

We got the bus from Newcastle, it took about 45 minutes and it’s well worth a visit.