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Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Vanbrugh 300 is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to develop a nationwide project that aims to broaden the awareness of Vanbrugh through special displays, free education programmes and lectures, throughout his tercentenary year in 2026.
The De Laval family arrived in Northumberland in 1066 with the Norman Conquest.
By 1353 the manor of Seaton Delaval had a house, garden, dovecote, and windmill, and by 1425 it had a tower too. Ralph Delaval (d.1628) spent a lot of money on the land in the 1600s but by the eighteenth century the family fortune made from agriculture, coal, and salt production had dwindled away and the house had to be sold. Fortunately, it was bought by a distant cousin, Admiral George Delaval (c.1668 - 1723), who planned to spend his retirement renovating the house and filling the garden with trees.
Delaval persuaded Vanbrugh to accept his commission and by 1720 was presented with a dramatic English Baroque design of massed towers and commanding sea views. Sadly, the Admiral died in 1723 after falling from his horse but his nephew, Captain Francis Blake Delaval (1692-1752), and his wife Rhoda, inherited and completed the house, moving in with their children in 1728.
The children gained a reputation for outrageous behaviour and lavish spending. The eldest son, Francis (1727-1771), was a particular subject of gossip, playing elaborate tricks on his guests by hiding geese in the covers of their beds, or turning rooms upside down while they slept. The second son, John inherited the Hall from his brother in 1771 and made substantial changes.
In 1822, a fire broke out leaving the hall a roofless ruin. Newcastle architect, John Dobson, carried out limited restoration works in the 1860s so that whole building was protected by a roof for the first time in four decades. Edward Astley, the twenty-second Baron Hastings (1912-2007) and his wife, Lady Catherine, carried out major renovations of the burned building in the 1950s and 1960s and after their deaths, the National Trust acquired the landscape and collections.
The recent ‘Curtain Rises’ conservation project has sought to bring back the Delaval flamboyance, theatricality and mischief.
In 1718, Admiral George Delaval wrote to his brother, stating his intention ‘…to persuade Sir John Vanbrugh to see Seton if possible & to give [him] a plan of a house, or to alter the old one…’. The decision was taken to design a new mansion, replacing the earlier house, and by 1720, Vanbrugh had produced the design for what was to become his last big house and was actively engaged in planning and supervision. Archival evidence shows that he visited the site probably in March 1720 and again in August 1721 to set out the main features of the scheme. Vanbrugh’s letters show how much he admired the Admiral’s ambition, noting that, ‘the Admiral is very gallant in his operations, not being disposed to starve the design at all’.
Vanbrugh delegated much of the practical implementation of his design to the builder William Etty (c. 1675-1734) with whom he had previously worked and who acted as his surveyor for the works at Seaton Delaval. Etty would have supervised local craftsmen, sourced materials, and adapted the designs as needed. Work stopped for a while in 1723 when the Admiral died but it was completed by around 1728 when his heir, Blake Delaval, made the Hall his family home. The mansion suffered later fires and alterations, but Vanbrugh’s original vision remains intact, bringing together the theatrical Baroque style Vanbrugh had developed at Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard into a compact but fully realised architectural statement and refined country house
(Secrets of Vanbrugh)
Vanbrugh appears to have visited the site himself only twice and died before it was finished.
Don't Miss
The east and west spiral staircases which are among Vanbrugh’s most distinctive architectural features, showcasing both his dramatic theatrical flair and structural innovation. The twin open-well cantilevered stone stairs are an unusually early and ambitious example of this technique in Britain. While they have been scarred by time and fire, they are still one of the most impressive features of Seaton Delaval Hall.
