3-071-142 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Benwell Tower, Newcastle-On-Tyne, the residence of the Bishop of Newcastle, 1883. 'The creation of the new Bishopric of Newcastle, out of part of the diocese of Durham, made it requisite to provide a suitable residence...for the prelate who should hold this important charge. While the Committee of the Newcastle Bishopric Fund were occupied with the pecuniary endowment, it was announced that Mr. John William Pease, of Pendower, Newcastle-on-Tyne, had given the mansion known as Benwell Tower, to serve as the palace of the new See. For this purpose it appears to be admirably suited, as it stands at a convenient distance of two miles from Newcastle. The munificent gift, valued at £12,000, derives a peculiar fitness from the circumstance that Benwell Tower stands on the site of an old Border tower...at one time the summer residence of the Priors of Tynemouth. The present mansion was built about fifty years ago. It is not a little remarkable that the Church should thus become repossessed of Benwell Tower through the generosity of one who does not belong to her communion. Mr. Pease is, like the rest of his family, a member of the Society of Friends. Our View of Benwell Tower is from a drawing by Mrs. Edwin Sandys, of Whickham Rectory, Gateshead'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.