The Story – Renovation and Repurposing of Mount Oswald Manor House
At the Trust’s 2025 AGM Michael Hurlow introduced the presentation of the Trust’s Architectural Award for 2025 as follows:
Carolyn Ball will be giving us more on the Story project and I would not wish to repeat what she may be covering.
This was a difficult project to see through to become the building we are in today. The House was in desperate need of positive use and had an accumulation of repairs and other issues to resolve. The brief for its new additional use was always going to be challenge because of site constraints and the need to respect the Grade II listed House.
The solution needed to accommodate substantial archival needs, public access areas and become an attractive wedding venue. All this was to be achieved while respecting the original building and its setting. The forward facing glass block chosen as the solution works well against the new building including a subtle setback and inshot at the junction between the old and the new to avoid clashing frontages. The heavy rear block stemming from archive protection requirements was equally difficult to settle against the lesser rear facade of the House.
The combined frontage works well and complements the parkland setting. The rear with its well conserved original house, subtlety decorated paneling to the archive area and hard landscaping has raised its quality to become an attractive entrance. There were Trust reservations at the application stage but these were about how various elements were to be detailed. The design choice to push the archive area to the rear has worked well. The implementation of the building has successfully achieved the original promise of the project.
The building uses are comfortable in their allocated spaces. The minimalist light open glass pavilion happily accommodates reading rooms, café and exhibitions. The House is a successful wedding venue – the building and its surrounds offer opportunities for the now required wedding photographic sessions. The archive brings together the historic County resources in safe and secure areas.
The raising of finance in a time of difficult budgetary constraints has allowed this to happen. This included European funding amongst other contributions. The County Council and consultant team have risen to the challenge and delivered a landmark building. It was long journey from golf clubhouse to what it is now.
The Trust is always looking for buildings that marry conservation with new uses, and The Story goes one step further by also adding a very substantial set of extensions. The design has managed to combine the new with the old without compromising either. For these reasons, the Trust considers that this project deserves its award.
At the end of the AGM, the Award was presented to Carolyn Ball, County Archivist. She gave a talk ‘The story of The Story’. In summary she said:
The Story is shortlisted for the national Royal Town Planning Institute Awards and some of the team involved in the project are away this evening at the awards ceremony in London. [See note below] The decision to demolish County Hall at Aykley Heads was the main impetus for this project, i.e. the county archives (6 miles of historic documents!) had to be moved somewhere, and the Grade II listed Mount Oswald manor house was identified as the best option. Built in 1799 for John Richardby, a wealthy London merchant, although he never actually lived in it. A street – Richardby Crescent – in the nearby new housing development is named after him. The plot hasn’t changed much since then.
We got access to the building on 23 October 2023 and opened to the public on 14 June 2024, so it was a tight schedule! Five historic collections were moved here from all over the county:
County Durham Archives, 900 years of history, comprising records of County Durham and Darlington, including the pre-1974 historic county between the Rivers Tyne and Tees.
Historic Environment Record: an archive of information about archaeological sites, ancient monuments, historic buildings, excavations, metal-detectorist finds and chance discoveries.
The Durham Light Infantry Collections, covering 300 years of DLI stories.
The Local Studies collection, containing many different types of sources of information that detail the history of the places and people of County Durham.
Historic Registration collection, containing all the births, deaths and marriages in County Durham since 1837.
During the transfer, the team averaged stocking 103 shelves a day, and 8.5 thousand of shelves required labelling. The archives comprise three floors, 11 strongrooms and 14.5km of mobile shelving, with lockable shelving for the Registry collection.
For the development project there were five complex areas to deal with: the outside (parkland etc), the manor house, the strongrooms/archives, the research/study area, and the exhibition/café area. The building was constructed using Passivhaus principles. The collections need certain environmental conditions, hence the special concrete box design for the archives to achieve temperature and humidity standards, security and fire protection. The humidity control equipment only needs to run once or twice a week, whereas it ran 24/7 at County Hall. There are ground source heat pumps under the carpark and solar panels on the roof of the extension. Only about 15 of the 75 staff members can access the secure areas.
Around 125,000 people visited The Story in the first year of operation (compared to an annual average of 2.5000 at County Hall). In the exhibition/cafe area only a couple of the items on display are on loan, everything else is from the county collections. Upstairs, blinds and specialised glass in the Collections Room give views of the parkland – an innovative design for an archival collection! The research room is open/free access with interactive screens and 16 computer terminals for online access to the collections. All the microfilm collections have now been digitised. Access to an archival object is available in the Collections Room (a secure research area), on a pre-booked basis. There are 50 active volunteers at present with a waiting list for others. It is a privilege to be part of the important steps in the family lives of residents via the Register Office (with many wonderful weddings viewed from the office windows!). There have been 987 weddings at The Story since June 2024. The parkland provides an opportunity to host events and activities. The winter illuminated trail staged in the grounds had a local link to Sir Joseph Swan (north-east inventor born in Sunderland). He was the inventor of the fairy lights when he was commissioned by the Savoy Theatre in London to create miniature lights to adorn the dresses of the lead fairies on the opening night of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe. The Story is all about people – the people covered in the collections and the people who use it!
As a postscript following Carolyn’s talk, the sustainability credentials of the building also need recognition. Putting sustainability to the fore and achieving Passivhaus Standard for this public project added to the challenges of the project. It is another considerable achievement to have incorporated this and included ground source heating and solar panels along with low carbon construction.
The Story Front ViewThe Story Back ViewThe Story Back Art Work
History of Mount Oswald House
Mount Oswald Manor House is a Grade II listed building (list entry number 1310089).
Documents on the County Council’s planning portal describe both the renovation of the site and the building plus a historic overview – DM/20/01280/FPA and DM/20/01286/LB, Change of use, alteration and extension to existing Manor House to form Registry Office, County Records and Archive Services, and DLI Collection.
The predecessor to the present mansion was called Oswald House, as shown on the engraving included in Neale’s Views, published 1818. Building began in 1800 for John Richardby, but was incomplete in 1806 when it was sold to Thomas Wilkinson (a onetime mayor and alderman of Durham). Wilkinson completed the building, which was then sold to his cousin the Rev. Percival Spearman Wilkinson. The Rev. Wilkinson commissioned the architect Philip Wyatt to extend the mansion in 1829; building was completed in 1830. The wider landscape of the building was created at the same time and comprised a walled garden to the south of the house (now the location of a modern private house) and the grassy parkland to the east of the house which remains today.
Ownership of the house was passed down through the Wilkinson family. It was let to John Rogerson (a director of various iron and steel companies in the north east, and later an Alderman and Sheriff of County Durham, and MP for Barnard Castle) in 1898. There was a fire in 1900 requiring major repairs. The Wilkinson family sold the property to Rogerson c.1900. Durham Golf Club was founded in 1887 and purchased land for a course at Pinkerknowle, several miles to the south east of Mount Oswald. By 1927 they needed a new and larger course and leased Mount Oswald, owned by the North Brancepeth Coal Company and the Weardale Steel, Coal & Coke Co. (possibly business interests of Rogerson). The name of Durham City Golf Club was adopted in that year. A course was laid out of 19 holes. The freehold of Mount Oswald was purchased at some point. The clubhouse was requisitioned for the Second World War, and the East Surrey Regiment used the building. The City Club moved from Mount Oswald in 1974 to its present location at Littleburn, Langley Moor, to the south west of Mount Oswald. The owners of Mount Oswald (North of England Estates) continued to run the site as the Mount Oswald Golf Club. The golf club closed finally on New Year’s eve 2013. Afterwards, the Manor House was temporarily occupied by guardians (overseen by a management company) who lived there whilst the building sought a permanent use.
Source: Mount Oswald House, County Durham. Conservation Statement – July 2016
Although Thomas Wilkinson sold Mount Oswald to his cousin Percival in 1828, he continued to own additional land on the opposite side of the A177, just north of Mount Oswald. His son George built a mansion confusingly called, like the precursor of Mount Oswald, Oswald House. This house suffered severe fire damage in 1960 and was demolished. Since the early 1970s, Durham University’s Collingwood College has occupied the site.
Note: RTPI award (Royal Town Planning Institute).The Story received an ‘Award for Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture’. This award celebrates outstanding projects that have improved or enhanced places with a particular historical or cultural significance, for the benefit of the community and future generations. The judges’ comments: Judges described The Story as a big bold ambitious project delivering on heritage, culture, architecture and environmental objectives. They were particularly impressed by their exemplary inclusivity and cutting-edge heating and cooling technology. The Story was submitted by Kier Construction and Durham County Council. The Story is a unique new visitor attraction in County Durham, with accessibility, sustainability and the user experience at the heart of its design.
