Stanhope castle was, for a time, the home of Henry Pease, has been a school and is now apartments.
source: Henry Pease : a short story of his life
In his marriage he took as his summer residence Stanhope Castle in Weardale.
It had been uninhabited for many years, and the plantations had remained uncared for, while the kitchen garden had been merely stocked with what the gardener left in charge found profitable to sell. It was a work very much to his taste to put the house into habitable order, and to improve and beautify the gardens and surroundings. Year by year saw some new improvement effected, or some pleasant scheme carried out, till he used playfully to say that there was nothing left for him to do.
In this favourite home many of the happiest days of his life were passed. His children will ever remember how their father shared in the enjoyment of the delightful summer afternoons spent on the Waskerly Reservoir in their boat Sunbeam and the picnics at Kettle Bay. Also their rambles up the wooded glens, following the course of the tributary streams, that over rock and boulder made their way to the river Wear. Even when his power of walking lessened, to the last, with almost as much pleasure as any of the youthful party round him, he would join in the excursions which by driving could be shared in.
The line bracing air suited his health, and he never tired of the moorland scenery surrounding Stanhope, but returned to it, even after the grandeur of Switzerland or the colouring of Italy, with a loving appreciation, feeling deeply thankful that such a retreat, embracing so much that he delighted in, should be permitted him.
His humble gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift will ever be remembered
by his children in connection with their hfe in this pleasant spot. “These things,” he would
say, ” do not come as a matter of course, let us thank the Lord who so loadeth us with
benefits.”
We would here mention his intense and almost reverential love for flowers. He would
stand before a rose tree in beautiful bloom, transfixed in admiration almost amounting to
worship ; and this tenderness for flowers made it almost a pain to him to see them ruthlessly
plucked or thrown away. In 1863 a fresh interest and pleasure w^as brought into his life by the
marriage of his son Henry Fell, with Elizabeth, elder daughter of John Beaumont Pease. This
pleasure was greatly increased by his son’s new house, Brinkburn, being near to Pierremont, the grounds adjoining one another, so that when at home almost daily intercourse could be maintained.