History

Parts of Whalton Manor date from the 17th Century, but the magnificent house and grounds you see today are the result of substantial alterations by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1908. He linked two existing houses, Old Whalton Manor and Whalton Mansion. Old Whalton Manor, to the east of the archway, had been a row of seventeenth century cottages which the well known Scottish architect ,Sir Robert Lorimer {1864-1929}, joined together in the late 19th Century. He is also believed to have built the glass covered stable yard, which the family still uses for their horses. Whalton Mansion, to the west, was built in 1729.

Lutyens erected the beautiful arch, which is the most visible feature from the road, to connect the two buildings and make what is said to be the longest manor house in England.

Around the central archway, Lutyens combined the medieval harshness of neighbouring Northumbrian castles with a delicate classicism more familiar in his southern works to create a single imaginative and fascinating country house.