The Normans

The De Laval family arrived in Northumberland with the Normans in 1066. The Church of Our Lady was consecrated in 1102 and was the family’s private chapel – it is currently undergoing restoration and is closed. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, there was a house, garden, dovecote, windmill and tower.

By the early 1600s, the estate was owned by Ralph Delaval and according to his son, Ralph spent a lot of money updating the house. He replaced the windows, updated the kitchen and granary and added new garden walls and a bakehouse. Ralph also levelled off the ground around the house.

The Delaval money came from agriculture, coal and salt and Ralph also improved Seaton’s harbour [now Seaton Sluice] to make it more accessible for ships

The 18th Century

However, by the early 18^th century, the Delaval’s finances were running out and a distant cousin, Admiral George Delaval bought the estate.

A naval officer and diplomat – he had also been envoy to the Emperor of Morocco and to the King of Portugal- the Admiral’s original plan as he wrote to his brother in 1717 ‘to divert myself in my old age, repairing the old house, making a garden and planting forest trees, for which we may expect prayers when we are no more’.

However, he soon changed his mind, telling his brother: ‘I intend to persuade Sir John Vanbrugh to see Seaton if possible and to give me a plan of the house, or to alter the old one, which he is most excellent at… So something may be done by degrees and be the entertainment of our old age, or as long as we can live’.

Vanbrugh did visit. But he did not suggest altering or remodelling the existing house but instead to build a completely new house. The work was supervised by the York mason William Etty. The old house – a 14th century tower with Tudor manor and Jacobean extensions was demolished in 1720. Vanbrugh published a plan of Seaton Delaval in Vitruvius Britannicus of 1725. Vanbrugh wrote: ‘The Admiral is very Gallant in his operations not being dispos’d to starve the Design at all’.

The house is a perfect example of the English baroque. It has a comparatively small central block which contained the principal and state rooms with the two porticos providing viewing platforms out over the surrounding landscape. Vanbrugh designed two equally impressive arcaded and pedimented wings on either side of a grand courtyard.

However Admiral Delaval was not able to enjoy his house for long as he was thrown from his horse in 1723 and died from his injuries.

After his death, the estate was inherited by his nephew Captain Francis Blake Delaval and his wife Rhoda. They oversaw the completion of the house and started living there with their family in 1728.

‘The Gay Delavals’

It was their children who became known as the ‘Gay Delavals’. They spent liberally on gambling and extravagant parties, and became notorious for the elaborate practical jokes they played on unsuspecting guests. These included hiding geese beneath bedcovers, lowering beds into tanks of cold water during the night, and revealing adjoining bedrooms by drawing back curtains that guests had mistaken for solid walls.

They put on plays and pantomimes at home and once hired Drury Lane Theatre in London for their own production of Othello. Parliament was adjourned two hours early for the performance and among the audience was the Prince of Wales. They did nothing by halves.

In 1752, Francis died after falling down the front steps, drunk and the estate was inherited by his son, the eldest boy of the ‘Gay Delavals’, and also called Francis.

It seems that these were designed by Francis c1768 after his visit to the ‘very magnificent stables’ at Hopetoun House in Midlothian. These were designed by John Adam between 1750 and 1756 and Francis decided to have something similar built at Seaton Delaval. The name of each of the first horses to live here was painted in longhand above the keystones of the arched niches. They survive to this day: Zephyrus, Hercules, Tartar, Regulus, Peacock, Julius, Chance, Prince, Pilot, Captain, Admiral and Steady. Apparently when the work was finished, Sir Francis held a celebratory banquet down the main aisle of the stables.

However Francis’s erratic behaviour and mounting debts the family sought an Act of Parliament to take over the running of the estate. His brother John took over its management while another brother Thomas built a large glass works and also improved the harbour at Seaton.

John inherited Seaton Delaval in 1771 and with his first wife Susannah made substantial alterations to the house and built the Mausoleum.

In the next six years, the bottle works became the largest in the country. Their only son, Jack, died in 1775 and the Hall passed briefly to another of the ‘Gay Delavals’, his only surviving brother Edward. But with no male heirs, the estate was inherited by his nephew, Jacob Astley, the son of Rhoda, the eldest of the ‘Gay Delavals’.

Fire Breaks Out

In 1822, tragedy struck. A fire broke out and although no one was injured, the interior of the central section was destroyed: ‘The heat was so intense that the glass in the windows was reduced to a liquid state and the lead on the roof poured down like water’. [Tomlinson’s Guide to Northumberland, 1889]

The Newcastle architect, John Dobson, undertook limited restoration works in the 1860s. He shored up the Saloon with iron columns and brick, and for the first time in four decades the whole building was protected by a roof. The South-East wing extension was so badly damaged that it had to be demolished.

It wasn’t until 1980s that Edward Delaval Astley, 22nd Baron Hastings moved back to the Hall and converted the old service wing into his home. Remained there until his death in 2007. It is now used to display the surviving contents – like the recently opened V&A storehouse in the East End of London than the standard National Trust exhibition space.

His son, Delaval Astley, the 23rd Lord Hastings describes himself as a farmer and actor – for Archers’ fans, he played the manipulative character Cameron Fraser who dumped a pregnant Elizabeth at a motorway service station. Finding himself with an enormous inheritance tax bill, Lord Hastings decided to sell Seaton Delaval. In Sept 2008, the National Trust launched an appeal to raise £6.3M to buy the house and its surrounds. It took 15 months – and the acquisition was unique. The Trust consulted 100k local people who in six months raised nearly £1M of the £3m the organisation needed to find.

Christopher Hussey wrote an article about Seaton Delaval in Country Life (1923). He wrote: ‘before he was an architect Vanbrugh was a dramatist, and before a dramatist a romantic. … The romantic nature of the site stirred him to his depths, and he produced this splendid theatrical pile, this palace of the fates and winds.’

The Gardens

The gardens would have been designed with the Hall. Some of the hard landscaping remains – the bastions, boundary walls and ha-ha – but much of the layout and planting has been lost or altered.

The National Trust were only able to buy the land around the house – a small fraction of the surrounding estate. A contemporary wrote: ‘The appearance of Seaton Delaval now engaged the eye; the spreading plantations extended over the plane afforded an agreeable scene, which was beautifully improved by the distant prospect of the ocean.”

The area to the south west bastion is now much more open and largely informally planted. There is also a rose garden, some mixed borders, an arboretum and what’s called a privy garden with its summerhouse.

To the west side of the house is an Italianate parterre garden designed by James Russell of Sunningdale Nurseries. Russell later worked at Castle Howard.

To the east side, the area has been planted with mixed woodland with a few contemporary art installations. They mirror the playfulness of the Delavals’ and Vanbrugh.

The area known as the Oval has also been restored. This was where the family held parties and even circus performances. George Delaval noted in 1753 that ‘upwards of four thousand Gentlemen and Ladies had been assembled at Seaton Delaval to see the Rope dancers.’ [presumably not all at once!] And there were also ‘long tournements, Bull-batings and two dancing Bears’.

The mausoleum was built around 1766 by Lord Delaval for his son John. Originally domed, it is now roofless. It sits on a circular mount surrounded by a ha-ha. A path leads from here to Seaton Sluice, the natural harbour.

Another folly was built here – Starlight Castle. Today, only a small section of the wall survives. It is said that it was built by Sir Francis Delaval in the middle of the 18^th century. The story goes that Delaval wagered he could build a castle overnight, and this was the result – hence the name Starlight Castle.

The Kitchen Garden

The Kitchen Garden extended to three acres but is now sadly often used as the car park. However the orchard, orangery and the base of the greenhouse still remain. A large section has been given over to a community kitchen garden.

There is some speculation that the Orangery was designed by William Etty and therefore contemporary to the main hall. However it could also been built earlier as it has been suggested that the adjoining garden cottage was probably medieval in origin, perhaps even part of the medieval hall.

By the 19^th century, the Walled Garden was let to a market gardener called George Bell. Visitors could ‘buy grapes, flowers, fruit. Etc. By the side of the fish-pond, which still contain good many fine carp, are 2 or 3 old statues’.