Haggerston, Northumberland

Haggerston
Northumberland
Haggerston Mill
Location
Grid reference:	NU042436
Location:	55°41’13"N, 1°56’6"W
Data
Post town:	Berwick Upon Tweed
Postcode:	TD15
Local Government
Council:	Northumberland
Parliamentary constituency:	Berwick-upon-Tweed

Haggerston is a hamlet in northern Northumberland, about five miles south of Berwick-upon-Tweed, adjacent to the A1 road. Historically, it was in the parish of Ancroft, which belongs to the detached parts known as North Durham. Today, it is best known for Haggerston Castle, whose grounds have become a caravan park.

History

Haggerston was first mentioned in sources in 1311, when Edward II visited Haggerston Castle, and again in 1345, when the castle was described as a 'strong tower' and was granted a licence to crenellate by Edward III in the same year. This licence is recorded in the Calendar of patent rolls (1343–45), p. 479.

The inhabitants of the castle, the de Hagardestons, are believed to have been part of the invading force of William the Conqueror. The land at Haggerston was, at that time, boggy and wet, the remaining lake serving as a reminder of this. There are few records of the early part of the history of Haggerston Castle, as later fires destroyed much of the castle, along with its documents. It is known that John de Hagardeston inhabited the castle in the late 12th and early 13th century, his death having been documented around 1210. He married into the Manners family, of Cheswick. The name of de Hagardeston appears to have changed to the anglicized spelling of Haggerston with Thomas Haggerston, born circa 1458.

In 1642, Sir Thomas Haggerston was created the first baronet of Haggerston. The Haggerstons married into many great families, such as the Cheswick family, gaining large amounts of land, but Haggerston eventually became a minor estate, connected to the Maxwell and Constable families, and passed to the Maxwell Lord Herries of Terregles, through Winifred Maxwell, who married William Haggerston-Constable, second son of the third Baronet. Their grandson, William Constable-Maxwell, became the 10th Lord Herries of Terregles when the title was restored in 1858.

C.J. Naylor

By the 1880s, the castle and estates were part of the Leyland Entailed Estates, built up by Liverpool banker Thomas Naylor. On his death in 1891, it was inherited by his nephew Christopher John Naylor (1849–1926), who gave up his family home Leighton Hall, Montgomeryshire to his brother, and moved to Haggerston, changing his name to C.J. Leyland.

By 1893 he had rebuilt the main house, and like his father John Naylor started to develop his own gardens at Haggerston, overseeing the landscaping of the 23,000-acre estate, in the course of which he received from his brother six trees of a novel hybrid, the Cupressocyparis leylandii, or Leyland Cypress: from these trees come the must loved and loathed Leylandii sold to gardeners across the nation.

The castle was burnt down in 1618 and in 1911, leving only the tower remaining.

Today

After C.J. Naylor's death in 1926, in 1933, the ruins of the house were demolished and the estate auctioned off in 2,000 lots, in order to try to recoup some of the family fortune.

Only the tower and the rotunda (both Grade II listed buildings) remain of the house C.J. Naylor built on the castle site in 1893. Haven Holidays now owns these buildings and operates a holiday park on surrounding 256 acres of land, with the main complex for the caravan park stretches between these buildings to resemble a large tent. The tower is used as a storeroom, and the rotunda is the Owner's Exclusive lounge. The cellars have been converted into a bar and storerooms.

Seven semi-detached cottages, the Roadside Cottages, still remain, and are privately owned, having been built for the employees of the castle in the late 18th century, along with a terrace of four cottages, the Flower Cottages. There is also a modern-built house. The ruins of the chapel and the ice house still remain, along with the dovecote on the opposite side the A1.

See also

• Haggerston Castle

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Haggerston, Northumberland)

References

• Jackson, Michael. (1992) Castles of Northumbria. Barmkin Books. ISBN 978-0-9519708-0-5
• The Haggerston Historical Handbook
• Images of Haggerston Castle on NorthOfTheTyne
• Haggerston Pedigree from Stirnet
• The Gatehouse Gazetteer: Haggerston Castle