Shotton Hall

About Shotton Hall

“With its sweeping driveway and 17½  acres of picturesque gardens Shotton Hall represents a fine example of a mid 18th century country house and is one of only a few still surviving in the area. Its importance as a building has been acknowledged by being protected as a Grade Two Protected Building.

Shotton Hall has several rooms that are licensed for civil weddings/partnerships and has over 20 years experience of hosting wedding receptions and all manner of business, social and charity events. Everything from your small and intimate family gatherings, right up to a 350 person extravaganza!”

Built around 1760 Shotton Hall represents a fine example of a mid 18th Century Country House and is one of only a few still surviving in the area today. The land on which the Hall is built belonged to the Thompson family from the reign of Elizabeth I until the marriage of the family’s heiress Elizabeth to Charles Brandling in 1756. In 1850, following unsuccessful speculation in coal mining, the Brandlings’ were forced to sell their estates, including the Hall, to the Shotton Coal Company.

The Hall subsequently passed from the Shotton Coal Company to the Burdon family around 1880 and was later requisitioned by the War Office during the Second World War. At the end of the war, the Hall was purchased by the Horden Collieries Co. Ltd and when the Company was nationalised the Hall came into the ownership of the National Coal Board. In 1949/50 the Hall was refurbished when it became the Offices of the Peterlee Development Corporation and the external fabric was restored so far as was possible to its original condition.

In 1984, with the impending demise of Peterlee Development Corporation, the Hall was sold to Peterlee Town Council. Since then, the formal gardens have been restored and the building extended to provide excellent banqueting and conference facilities. As with all good old houses, Shotton Hall had its own ghost or poltergeist – “The Grey Lady”.  Although entirely undocumented, it would appear that some unfortunate serving girl took her own life after an indiscretion with one of the masters of the Hall. And to this day, she still asserts her presence in the Hall, especially on and around the back staircase leading to the former servants’ quarters. It was on these stairs that the poor girl hung herself.