I've been viewing the BBC's food series, the Great British Menu, this week and it is now the turn of the North East region.
One of the two chefs, Kenny Atkinson, is chef at Seaham Hall resort in County Durham.
Intriguingly, there has been a tenuous link between Seaham Hall and Mount Stewart in County Down: they were both seats of the Marquesses of Londonderry.
The Londonderrys made much of their fortune through coal-mining in County Durham; apparently the family preferred to spend more of their time at Mount Stewart, though.
Seaham Hall is now part of the von Essen Hotel group. I had a look at their nine-line "history" of Seaham Hall and its former connexion with the Londonderry family is not mentioned.
The coat-of-arms is shown by kind permission of European Heraldry.
2 comments :
Seaham was built by the Londonderrys as a coastal residence after they inherited the coal mines and estates in the north east from the 3rd Marquess's first wife Frances Anne Vane-Tempest. The family in fact preferred to spend most of their time either at the main English residence, Wynyard Park, or at Londonderry House on Park Lane in London. Mount Stewart was sadly neglected for some years until the 7th Marquess and his wife decided to make it their permanent home in the 1920s.
Some literature has been published by several family members, including Lady Annabel Goldsmith, which provides some insight into family movements then and more recently.
Tim
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