Earlier this month I gave a talk to the Sunniside History Society about locations in the area which have a link to the 2nd World War. Included in the talk was a section about Ravensworth Castle in Gateshead. It wasn't not a real castle. Instead, it was a stately home built in the later Victorian period. By the later 1930s it was empty and suffering from mining subsidence. Lord Ravensworth had taken the decision in 1938 to have the house demolished. The stone and timber would be used to build a model village near the site of the castle. 3 houses were built by the time war was declared, at which point all house building was stopped. The foundations of the 4th house had been dug but after the war, the remaining houses were never built.
In this video which I produced for the History Society talk, I explain how the war stopped the demolition and building plans in their tracks while the partially demolished castle was taken over by the army for billeting soldiers.
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