Fenham

Fenham Hall

Fenham Hall has its origins in the 14th century. Surrendered by the Hospitallers to the Crown at the Reformation, it was granted initially to the Riddell family before being acquired (along with much of the surrounding land) by the Ords in 1695. The present building was begun by John Ord in 1744; following his death the following year it was continued by his brother William. The Hall was expanded and rebuilt over subsequent decades, and now shows various stages of architectural development; the interior was gutted by fire in 1908. (three years earlier the hall had been purchased ).

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  South front (1748 by Daniel Garrett). The pediment displays the Ord family coat of arms.
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  North front, attributed to William Newton (late 18th or early 19th century).
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  East front (c.1850, architect unknown).

St Mary's College

Fenham Hall: extension to the west by Leonard Stokes (1907, for St Mary's College).

In 1905 Fenham Hall was purchased by the Society of the Sacred Heart to house a secondary school and a Teacher Training College: St Mary's. The hall itself accommodated the convent and dormitories; further buildings were added for the school and lecture rooms. The Training College closed in 1984, but Sacred Heart Catholic High School remains. Since the closure of St Mary's College the Hall and associated buildings have served as student accommodation for Newcastle University.^[4]

Fenham Barracks

Fenham Barracks: surviving blocks of 1804 (officers' quarters and officers' mess); now student accommodation.

Fenham Barracks was built in 1804-06 by James Johnson and John Saunders (architects at the Barrack Department of the War Office) on an 11-acre portion of the Town Moor leased from the Newcastle Freemen. Some ten years earlier, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle had written to the Home Secretary expressing local fears of sedition in the wake of the French Revolution.^[5] The barracks initially housed units of cavalry and artillery (capable of being deployed locally, as well as overseas during the Napoleonic Wars).^[6] Two-storey barrack blocks accommodated the men upstairs and the horses below.

In the 1870s the site was expanded to the north, with the addition of a hospital and other amenities, in the wake of the Cardwell Reforms (which also saw Fenham designated as the regimental depot of both the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Durham Light Infantry). Several of the old barracks blocks were demolished in the 1930s. There was further (almost comprehensive) demolition in the 1970s, when the northern part of the site was redeveloped by the Freemen to provide industrial units, a headquarters for the national Blood Transfusion Service and a new BBC Broadcasting Centre (for BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Look North); proceeds of the sale help fund the maintenance of the Town Moor.^[7] Part of the site remains in military hands and it serves as headquarters for local Army Reserve units.

Modern developments

The Church of St James and St Basil on Fenham Hall Drive

In 1895 Benwell and Fenham Urban District was created; in 1904 the area was incorporated into Newcastle upon Tyne.

Fenham did not become a residential area until the 20th Century. Housing was built on a large scale when tram lines were extended from Central Station via Barrack Road. Further expansion was facilitated by the development of trolley buses and bus links to Westerhope.^[8]

During the 1930s, a period of significant residential development and expansion, two churches opened in Fenham: the Arts & Crafts Church of St James and St Basil (architect: E. E. Lofting) was consecrated on 6 June 1931, having been funded by Sir James Knott in memory of his sons, James and Basil, killed in the First World War;^[9] the modernist Holy Cross Church (architect: Henry Hicks) was consecrated on Holy Cross Day 1936, having been funded by local landowner John Reginald Blackett-Ord.^[10]