Items from a recently-sold Northumberland Georgian country house designed by eminent North East architect John Dobson have been auctioned.
Meldon Park in the Wansbeck valley near Morpeth was built in 1832 for the Cookson family and has been their home for seven generations. The 10-bedroom hall, listed grade II-star, together with its Dobson-designed listed stable block and 36 acres of parkland, was placed on the market by James Cookson and wife Emily.
Estate agents Savills listed the property at £3.5m and it has been sold as a private residence. Around 150 lots from Meldon have been auctioned at Jim Railton’s Wooler auction rooms this weekend, with a similar number in another sale on March 20.
Read more: inside Meldon Park
Mr Railton said: “Provenance in the world of antiques and fine art is all important, and we have been privileged with instructions from one of Northumberland’s finest country houses, which has just been sold. It contained a lifetime of treasures from generations of Cooksons.”
Meldon has been described as “the last flowering of the Georgian country-house tradition.” It was built for Isaac Cookson, who ran glass and chemical works on Tyneside. Improvements were carried out in the 1930s by another famous architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Mr Railton said: “The Cookson family have lived at Meldon Hall since the house was built in the 1830s and James and Emily have taken the very difficult decision to move to a smaller home. Running such a mansion is no mean feat in this day and age, and inevitably the downsizing has meant parting with many treasures.”
The Cooksons opened a kitchen garden shop and restaurant at Meldon in 2013. A total of 137 lots from Meldon were sold by auctioneers Bonhams in Edinburgh earlier this month, including an oil painting of the Arch of Constantine in Rome sold for £21,675.
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