Cowpen House

[villageguides]

Hi everyone

This is another one of Cowpen's lost mansions!

It stood next to the Dales School on Cowpen Road. Looking at the maps of the area it seems to have been demolished in the 1950's. However I have come across this newspaper report from 2007;

"A MAN who inadvertently bought a 27-bedroom, 10- bathroom house for his frail elderly mum is set to make a sizeable profit selling the home.

Robert Benn bought rundown Cowpen House in Blyth seven years ago for pounds 85,000. When he saw the property's lift, he made the decision to buy the property there and then. His mum, Olive, then aged 80, had trouble getting around because of stiff joints.

He only realised he had taken on a house with 27 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms when he saw it in daylight for the first time.

After moving in, Mr Benn concentrated on establishing a living area for himself and his mum and much of the building remained unused.

He has spent thousands of pounds on having the roof repaired and putting in 62 new windows, but now demolition contractors are set to bulldoze the lot when the site is bought and cleared by North Shields-based Miller Homes.

The firm this week won the go-ahead from Blyth Valley Council's development control panel for a four-storey complex of 36 two-bedroom flats on the site.

Mr Benn said: "You could say I am making a profit but I didn't buy it to make a profit.

"It is a bit cold in the winter because I can't afford to run the heating. I am looking for something smaller."

Does anyone know if the newspaper reporter has mixed up Cowpen Hall and Cowpen House? Does anyone know anything more about Cowpen House? Does anyone remember it?

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Richard

[stanmapstone]

If you look at http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sidebyside.cfm#zoom=17&lat=55.1299&lon=-1.5436&layers=171&right=BingHyb you will see that a building is on the site of Cowpen Hall. There are no houses on the site of Cowpen House. The building on the site of Cowpen Hall is "South Bebside" a purpose built care home, not the four-storey complex of 36 two-bedroom flats in the newspaper article. https://goo.gl/maps/5agZGJkF6tC2

Stan

[villageguides]

That's what I thought Stan.

I wonder which building the newspaper article is about?

[Yossarian]

IIRC, Cowpen House was a home for the elderly directly opposite Hall's the dentist's on Cowpen Road. I remember when that guy bought it for his mother. It has since been demolished and new housing built on the site.

Edit: That Cowpen House bore no resemblance to the one in the illustration above. Maybe the home for the elderly was built on the site of the demolished older building.

[villageguides]

It looks like you might have solved the mystery Yossarian.

It looks like there were two buildings called Cowpen House on Cowpen Road (plus a Cowpen Hall, just to make it really confusing)!

One was the old building shown in the illustration, that stood down by Dales School, and another which you are referring to Yossarian, which was a care home opposite the dentists. It looks like the newspaper is referring to the old care home as the new building directly matches the one described in the article (a four storey complex of two bedroomed flats)

Thanks for your help Yossarian!

[stanmapstone]

You can see the house on this 1960 map https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/429573/581909/13/101329 it is a large house but is not named. It is not on the 1938 six inch map.

Stan

[blythian]

Just to corroborate the discussion, it was a modern-ish care home on the Briardale Road/Cowpen Road junction where the flats are. Cowpen Row was there before that.

The Cowpen House in the illustration is most likely the one that (on maps at least) is between Tynedale Care Home and the Dales school, but then there was Dr Fothergills house on the Tynedale Drive junction with Cowpen Road, though there are photos of that one flying around. Just to throw a spanner in the works there is also a Cowpen High House in Bebside haha

[Phodgetts]

This is Cowpen House (aka Cowpen Grove) which once stood on the site of what is now The Dales School, or as I prefer to remember them, Bebside School, Infants, Junior and Middle Schools. Cowpen House / Grove stood where the east wing of the school now stands, right on the old field boundary.

P

[Phodgetts]

This is Cowpen Hall, the site is now occupied by Mcdonald's.  On the west side of The Windmill Inn.

P