Whitfield Hall

Whitfield lies in the area of Tynedale in South West Northumberland. A tenuous connection with the Blacketts is thought to have existed through Whitfield having being owned before the Norman Conquest by the family of King Malcolm III of Scotland, and certainly the manor of Whitfield was granted to the Whitfield family in the 12th century by Malcolm’s great-grandson, King William I of Scotland.

The present connection is far more recent, however. In 1750 the manor was sold by the Whitfield family to William Ord of Fenham, now part of Newcastle Upon Tyne. In 1855, on the death of his grandson, also William Ord, who left no surviving issue, Whitfield passed to his niece, Anne Jane Hamilton. In 1842 Anne had married John Alexander Blackett, Vicar of Heddon-on-the-Wall, who, following the inheritance, changed his name to Blackett-Ord.

(There were other connections between the Blacketts and Ords. Anne was a first cousin to William Henry Ord, whose widow, Frances, became the second wife of Sir Edward Blackett, 6th Bt. And in 1711 Elizabeth Ord had borne to Sir William Blackett, 2nd Bt. an illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth, who became the wife of Sir Walter Calverley Blackett.)

Whitfield Hall is still in the ownership of the Blackett-Ord family. It is a Grade II listed building built in 1785 but incorporating the remains of an earlier pele tower. An additional floor was added in 1856, shortly after John Alexander Blackett-Ord acquired it.