Coxlodge Remnants

After Lucy left us, Vivien & I continued in our rounds of Gosforth.  One road we ended up on was called The Drive.  Bill and I have friends in the running club who live on The Drive and we've been to New Years Day parties there a number of times, so I knew one end of this street a bit, but I've never walked the length of it.  We found a few surprises.

If you remember my mentioning Coxlodge in connection with Job Bulman.  The Hall itself no longer stands, but we happened upon what used to be the stables. 



This is a residence for horses. Not bad, eh?



This enormous building now houses offices for a commercial real estate concern.  Standing outside we could see part of a stairwell that looked interesting.

Vivien convinced me that we should step inside and investigate further.  She intimated that with my American accent we could get away with being a bit nosey.

And so we did and we did (enter and get away with it).  In fact the receptionist was quite tolerant of my snapping photos of the stairs.  She even pulled out a one-page laminated document that spoke a bit about the history of the building.

When the phone gave her sufficient respite she mentioned the programme Who Do You Think You Are that featured super-model Jodie Kidd.  You can watch the videos of that programme here, if you are interested.

The interesting story is that around the time of the First World War, Coxlodge was owned by one of Kidd's ancestors, a Rowland Hodge, a shipbuilder in the Newcastle area.  There was a scandal in 1918 when he and his wife were convicted of food hoarding on an enormous scale (over a tonne of food) and they soon after left the area. 

The other interesting thing about Hodge is that he bought (for £5,000) a baronetcy from the then Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, in 1921, another scandal that led to the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. 

That Sir Rowland Hodge was definitely a scoundrel if there ever was one and King George V is said to have despised the man; he complained that the honour had been granted at all.



Nevertheless, I'll leave you with one more photo of the remains of Coxlodge Hall, its gatehouse.

 Remember the Rare! agent with the elephants on the doorway?  They can offer you this four-bedroomed house for only £585,000 (about $911,000 US).  Take a tour and see what you think.