Lartington Hall

Lartington Hall is a 17th century country house, at Lartington, Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The earliest part of the house, built for the Appleby family, is the three storey four bayed central block and projecting three storey porch, which dates from about 1635. The west wing and chapel dedicated to St Lawrence were added in about 1800 and the west wing and ballroom were built possibly to a design by Ignatius Bonomi in 1836. Further alterations in about 1860 were supervised by architect Joseph Hansom.

The Roman Catholic family of Maire acquired the manor of Lartington by marriage in 1654. It passed to the Lawson family when Sir Henry Lawson Bt (d 1834) of Brough Hall married Anna Anastasia the Maire heiress. Their grandson Henry Thomas Maire Silvertop who inherited the estate married Eliza Witham and changed his surname to Witham. As Henry Witham he was High Sheriff of Durham in 1844. His fourth son Right Reverend Monsignor Thomas Edward Witham lived in the Hall from 1847 until his death in 1897 when the estate passed to his grandnephew Francis Silvertop of Minsteracres who sold it out of the family in 1912. In the intervening years the house was let to Richard Forster Matthews and then to his nephew Frederick Berkley-Matthews.

Norman Field and later his widow owned the house but after her death it stood empty and neglected for some years. A restoration project by Mr and Mrs Robin Rackham with the assistance of English Heritage was completed in 2006.

References

• English Heritage: Images of England, photograph and architestural description of listed building
• A Topographical Dictionary of England Samuel Lewis (1848) p 30-32 from British History Online: Lartington
• A History of the County of York: North Riding Vol I (1914) p117-27 from British History Online: Lartington