24.  Kirkleatham Hall

Old Hall Museum and Art Gallery (plus cafe, parking and play area)

Scenes of Cleveland, North East England

* Index of Cleveland Scenes & Notes *

Kirkleatham is an area of Redcar in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland just north of North Yorkshire, England. Kirkleatham was listed in the Domesday Book has a fine collection of Georgian buildings that formed the Turner Estate, named after the Turner family who lived in the area from 1661.

The name of the village of Kirkleatham comes from the old Norse kirk (church) and hlíð (slopes) so the name literally means "church slopes." and it is thought the church origins go back to the 9th century CE and it is thought one of the locations where the body of Saint Cuthbert rested while carried monks before it was taken to Durham, hence the parish church is called Saint Cuthbert, whose parish records begin in 1559.

Kirkleatham was acquired by the Turner family around 1624 and is the birthplace of Sir William Turner who was Lord Mayor of London in 1669. He gave most of his fortune to found the Sir William Turner's Hospital in June 1676 now an independent almshouse. Turner bequeathed lots of money to his great nephew, Cholmley Turner to establish a Free School, built in 1709, which is now functions as the Kirkleatham Hall local museum.

Cholmley Turner added other Grade I listed buildings, the most notable being the Turner Mausoleum, in memory of his son, and adjoining the Church of St Cuthbert and the mausoleum was built in 1739–40 by James Gibbs, of Baroque style, the exterior is heavily rusticated, and restored in 1839. It contains the inscription, "This mausoleum was erected 1740 to the memory of Marwood William Turner Esquire the best of sons."

Cholmley Turner's nephew Sir Charles Turner, 1st Baronet, of Kirkleatham, MP for York from 1768 to 1783, developed the buildings including remodelling Kirkleatham Hall.

In 1918, Kirkleatham became the location of a mooring-out station for the huge airships that protected the east coast based out of RNAS Howden, though the site was only used in 1918 and closed permanently after the Armistice was signed in ?.

Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum, opened in 1981, functions as the local history museum for Redcar and Cleveland and a new building was later added to create space for exhibitions and offices.

Kirkleatham Hall houses and displays the finds from the Street House Anglo-Saxon cemetery, the only known Anglo-Saxon royal burial site in north-east England. The artefacts of this burial site were discovered from archaeological excavations near Loftus. Finds included pieces associated with a rare bed burial in which a decorated female body is laid out on a decorated wooden bed, accompanied by fine gold jewellery. Other finds displayed finds include a gold pendant, which would have belonged to a princess and glass beads, pottery, iron knives and belt buckles.

In 1998 the Kirkleatham Owl and Endangered Species Centre opened to the public in the grounds of Kirkleatham Old Hall and has one of Britain's largest collections of owls, and the centre also so has hawks and vultures, a caracara; a talking raven, and a kookaburra!!!

The Sir James Knott Lifeboat Museum is also located on the grounds of Kirkleatham Old Hall.

The front facade of Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum.

The entrance to the Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum museum

The ground floor exhibition in the Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum

There are various sections on the history of Cleveland

Oil painting of Skinningrove Works by Philip Boville

Old photograph of Redcar Steelworks in Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum and the River Tees in the background.

Part of the Anglo Saxon Princess Burial found at Street House, Loftus.

A summary of the findings by archaeologists

The reconstructed grave of the Anglo Saxon princess, Street House, Loftus

The gold pendant found in the grave of the Anglo Saxon Princess, Street House, Loftus

The shield shaped pendant made of gold and 57 inlaid precious red stones from the Anglo Saxon Princess burial

The gold wire bead found in the grave of the Anglo Saxon Princess, Street House, Loftus

 Exhibition in Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum

A section of the Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum is devoted to the life and work of Gertrude Bell, a quite remarkable pioneering woman

Gertrude Bell at the pyramids in Egypt

At the time of our visit there was a megalithic art exhibition of photographs and paintings in the art gallery hall - an excellent space for artists to show their work

There is a cafe adjacent to the art gallery.

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