| Mount Oswald | |
| Location: | Durham |
| Built: | 1800 |
| Architect: | Phillip Wyatt |
| Architecture: | Georgian |
| Designation1: | Grade II Listed Building |
| Designation1 Date: | 29 November 1973 |
| Designation1 Number: | 1310089 |
Mount Oswald is a manor house in Durham, County Durham, England. The property, which is being developed for academic and residential use, is a Grade II listed building.
The manor house was built for John Richardby, a London merchant, in 1800.[1] It was bought by Thomas Wilkinson (1752-1825), a former mayor of Durham, in 1806 and it then passed to the Rev Percival Spearman Wilkinson (1792-1875), in 1828.[1] The Rev Percival Spearman Wilkinson commissioned Phillip Wyatt to expand the house in the Georgian style in 1830.[2] [3]
Mount Oswald then passed to the Rev Percival Spearman Wilkinson's son, Percival Spearman Wilkinson JP (1820-1898), before being acquired by the North Brancepeth Colliery Company in the 1890s.[1] The house was acquired by North of England Estates (a business owned by the McKeag family) in 1934:[4] North of England Estates operated the Mount Oswald estate as the Durham City Golf Club until 1967, when the golf club moved to Littleburn, and then operated it as a commercial golf course.[5] The property was then acquired by the property developers, Banks Group, for residential development in January 2014.[2]
In August 2014 Banks Group sold part of the site to Durham University who had ambitions to use it for accommodation for 1,000 students.[6] [7] The project was procured by Durham University under a private finance initiative contract in August 2018.[8] The construction works, which were undertaken by Interserve at a cost of £105 million, saw John Snow College relocating from Rushford Court, and South College, a completely new college, being created on the Mount Oswald site in September 2020.[9]
In June 2019 Durham County Council revealed plans to move the county archives from County Hall to a new history centre, which was also intended to accommodate the Durham Light Infantry Collection, in the manor house at Mount Oswald.[10] The project, which envisaged Banks Group transferring the manor house to the council for a nominal sum, was granted planning consent in September 2020.[11] In March 2020 Banks Group also applied for planning permission to convert the gatehouses into residential properties.[12]