Bradley Hall from south-west

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 12 Mar 2016

Bradley Hall (listed grade II*) was built for Newcastle merchant, John Simpson, c1760 in neoclassical style and altered by John Dobson for the first Lord Ravensworth in 1813. James Paine has been credited with the design but it is thought that he is unlikely to have been involved, except possibly at a preliminary stage, and William Newton is a possible candidate for the architect. The Hall is on a platform at the top of a slope with the principal front facing south over gently falling land. It is in use as a private residence. There are stables and ancillary buildings arranged around a courtyard which adjoins the rear (north) side of the Hall which are also used as residential accommodation. There is open parkland with scattered mature trees to the south, where there is ridge and furrow, and to the west of the Hall, a lake, consisting of an elongated stretch of water aligned north-east/south-west lies c250m south-west of the Hall. This is on the site of an oval fishpond marked on the 1857 OS map, which shows two rectangular ponds to the south-west which seem to have been incorporated in the present lake. Bradley Dene runs along the east side of the site immediately to the east of the drive, from which it is divided by cast-iron fencing. The steep-sided Dene is wooded, and the Bradley Burn runs along the bottom. There are paths through the woodland, including one shown on the 1857 OS map which led across a footbridge to Sled Lane and the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden lies c200m north-east of the Hall on the other side of Sled Lane, on land overlooking Bradley Dene to the west. The garden is currently in use as a commercial garden centre Image Parks & Gardens UK: http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/279

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