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View Full Version : tunstall court hartlepool - back in the day ARCHIVED



Sandman
19-11-2008, 04:00 PM
Cant remember exactly when I did this place but its rather minty even tho it had been victim to a nasty attack of the chavs.

When we where there we saw loads of evidence that the place was being used by at least one homeless person or possibly more.



History bit

Built in 1899 by the famous shipbuilder and entrepreneur William C. Gray, the son of Sir William Gray also of shipbuilding fame, Tunstall Court was the Gray family’s main residence, though they did also own similarly sized properties in Yorkshire and Devon. As well as William C Gray and his wife, 7 other members of the Gray family occupied the building for nearly 30 years, with a staff of 12 to make sure their every need was looked after. Even with all these people in there Tunstall Court would have seemed spacious and luxurious with its 30 rooms, ballroom and indoor swimming pool*.
Tunstall House was also occupied briefly by the Furness family who were also hugely famous in the shipbuilding trade of the North East of England in the 19th and 20th centuries
In 1948 the ownership of the building was given to Hartlepool Borough Council who operated a number of initiatives from the building, such as using it as a training college for various trades including a secretarial college at one point. Sadly due to spiralling costs the council were forced to give up the property in 2002 due to a yearly cost of £165,000 for the upkeep of the land and its gardens.
Shortly after this a pilot scheme was launched by the Dutch company Camelot in which people were granted cheap leases of apartments in the building (£25 a week with all bills included, less than a quarter of an average for the area) in return for the occupants acting as security guards and keepers of the property, carrying out light maintenance and generally just keeping the property in a reasonable state of repair.
Again this scheme was short lived and Tunstall court closed its doors for the last time in 2006.


frontage
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/durham025.jpg

mykal "GET OOOORRRRFFF MY LAND"
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/durham012.jpg

rear exterior
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/durham003-1.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/durham001-1.jpg

ground floor entrance coridoor
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/hartlepool.jpg

smallest main hall in britan
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/DSCF0046.jpg

mural
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/DSCF0038.jpg

Amazing stained glass showing family history etc
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/DSCF0058.jpg

main staircase
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/DSCF0054.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/landyloony/DSCF0056.jpg

now what makes this a rather unique expeariance...
Whilst there we noticed a couple hanging about outside in the grounds. Nothing unusal about this really as this place is in a fairly decent area and the grounds seemed to be used a fair bit by local dog walkers etc.
As we where doing the ground floor the lass of the two was having a really close up nose to glass look through the windows so we thought "oh shit...busted time to go.
However she just tapped on the glass and beconed us over asking how we had got in so we pointed her to the access and she was soon stood with her partner asking if we minded her joining us.
After a little bit of help she managed to get in and we all started talking as you do in these curcumstances.
Turns out she was the great great great great(possibly another great in there) grandaughter or similar of the original people who owned the place William C Gray.
She had been researching her family history and had decided that she wanted to visit the old family home.So we gave her the full tour and she was blown away with the place
:thumb

Condition now:
Much the same afaik
there are some rooms that have been burnt out in the past but all in all the place is 95% intact and well secured but it we saw at least 3 entry points apart from the one we used.
:thumb