Axwell Park, Blaydon

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 23 Jul 2003

A house with a troubled gestation, birth, and, as can be seen from the photo, a troubled middle-age/youth (depending on how long it lives). James Paine provided a design in 1758 for Sir Thomas Clavering. At that time a top London architect might rarely, or even never, visit a site, hence the importance of a competent local executant builder-architect (in this case John Bell of Durham, whose competence might be in question). Clavering fancied himself as an amateur architect and decided that he could improve upon Paine's design, Bell could clearly only defer to him and so the final product was not as Paine intended, a situation he complained about bitterly in a later publication of his works. Grade II* listed. Having lain empty for at least twenty years, since this photo was taken I understand the house and grounds have been acquired by developers who are slowly converting it into flats.

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