To many seasoned observers of the great English countryside, Northumberland is something of a well-kept secret. The clue is probably in the name, where for a long linear country with its population concentrated in the southeast, travelling 300 miles north for a short break might harbour limited appeal. Although that’s hadly any further than Cornwall, which these days has so many people trying to cram into its quaint little coves and chichi seafood restaurants, they’ll soon be placing immigration checks on the Devon border.
There are no such issues amidst Northumberland’s rolling expanses of unadulterated greenery, where endearingly old-fashioned village and townscapes are left largely to their own devices. In many ways, it’s England as England used to be before the Cotswolds became a breeding ground for gastropubs and social media surrounded the village pond with snap-happy tourists.
England’s least populous county is, for those of us positively inclined towards train travel, actually surprisingly accessible, with a journey time from London to Newcastle’s magnificent Victorian train station, opened by Victoria herself in 1850, of a little over 2 ½ hours. Half an hour inland from there lies the latest addition to Northumberland’s hospitality landscape – Matfen Hall.
A Grade II listed Downton Abbey-esque stately pile abutting the estate village of Matfen, a few miles north of Hadrian’s Wall, Matfen Hall, embedded into its 300-acre park, has been the family seat of the aristocratic Blackett family since its construction in 1832, though they’ve been there since the 1700s, and the estate longer still. The Blacketts haven’t lived at the property, though, since the 1960s when it was first leased as a nursing home, then subsequently operated as a hotel by themselves before being acquired in 2020 by Newcastle financial services entrepreneur Sir David Harrison.
Following an initial £15 million renovation, the transformation of Matfen Hall from dowdy dowager into a 21st-century stylish retreat remains an ongoing endeavour. The original entrance has been relocated to enable maximum wow-effect as guests are now ushered directly into the Great Hall. With its ornate ceiling painted in deep blue with gold stars, a wood fire crackling away in the huge fireplace, copies of original tapestries draped on the walls, and a magnificent staircase that looks like it’s waiting for Errol Flynn to swashbuckle his way down – the Great Hall certainly wowed me.
The meticulously tended grounds incorporating a delightful formal garden, Le Jardin Hollandais, share the outdoors with a wide-ranging golf course. In addition to a 9-hole course, an 18-hole championship golf course, the Douglas, was recently debuted, following on from the construction of Keepers, an expansive clubhouse and restaurant overlooking the 18th hole that encompasses all manner of state-of-the-art golfing accoutrements. It’s clearly positioned to become one of the North of England’s preeminent golfing venues.
It was the Retreat, though, the soon-to-be-unveiled new spa complex, that I’d have loved to have been able to sample. With an 18-metre pool underneath a vaulted ceiling, a Roman sauna, Northumberland’s first cryotherapy chamber, and a Himalayan salt room, all connected to a sensory spa garden full of aromatic botanicals and herbs to flop about in after your Japanese head massage, it seems the spa bar up in the Borders is also about to be raised.
There are a total of 63 rooms, all benefiting from views of the gardens, golf course, or village church, ranging from luxury suites to classic rooms and family-friendly offerings. The overall style template inside the rooms adheres to a relatively conventional design narrative though the result is unrestrainedly plush and spacious, albeit with light blues and greys deployed with a seemingly wilful abandon. Beds are huge and swallow-you-up comfortable, while bathrooms are stocked with Penhaligon’s toiletries and smothered in wall-to-wall marble. Guests seeking out a stay that manages to encapsulate that classic country house ambience, though here thankfully without the faulty plumbing and faded fabrics, will feel very much at home.
Aside from the restaurant at Keepers, where both golfing and non-golfing guests are welcome, there are a further four dining options, including the 1832 bar with its enormous bay window. Inside the Drawing Room with its fireplace originally commissioned for Buckingham Palace but ultimately deemed too risqué for Queen Victoria, the serious business of afternoon tea unfolds like performance art. The Japanese guests I observed eagerly immersing themselves in the English silver service iteration of the tea ceremony were so engrossed by it that their tea had probably gone cold by the time they’d finished with all the selfies.
Cloisters restaurant and bar, focusing on steak and fresh seafood, sits under glass in a reconfigured space that was, before the recent renovations, an outdoor area between two separate buildings, and disports a more contemporary feel. In contrast to the prevailing traditional atmosphere, there’s suddenly a fair amount of shiny brass on display which did, for a moment, look as though it might set the blingometer off, though in the end it stayed silent.
The principal fine dining space, the Emerald Restaurant, is by far and away the place to be settling down to dinner. Located amidst the polished oak and book-lined walls of what was formerly the library during the property’s aristocratic heyday, with yet another massive fireplace at its heart and a sequence of expansive bay windows, the room immediately radiates a seductive allure. With the new championship golf course and spectacular spa complex both aiming at Northumberland’s best-in-class, I wondered if this majestic space might also be cultivating similar aspirations to become the county’s crucible of go-to gastronomy.
Dinner there with dishes like Cumbrian hogget (somewhere between a lamb and a sheep) and Yorkshire forced rhubarb was an indisputably delicious immersion into the north of England’s cuisine. Not least with the knowledgeable sommelier to hand, dipping back and forth to the impressive new cellar below the Great Hall, where wine tastings are also arranged. While this part of England doesn’t appear particularly concerned with what one suspects it regards as the namby pamby business of Michelin stars, although the couple of restaurants that do possess them are actually close by, this restaurant almost looks as if it should be aiming for one if only to complement its classically handsome features. Polish the Emerald, perhaps – make it really shine.
Service at Matfen Hall, which for guests in the luxury suites begins with a waiting limo at Newcastle’s station or airport, is joyously unpretentious, and probably a reflection of how people just are in this part of the world. Either way, it makes for an endearingly down-to-earth presentation of a 5-star luxury experience.
Not least once the Retreat is operational, there’s more than enough to keep guests fully occupied at Matfen Hall, especially the ones whose principal recreational pursuit is knocking little white balls down holes. For those keen to explore Northumberland, home to more castles than any other English county, opportunities to disappear into its bucolic hinterland are manifold. The quaint little town of Corbridge, the most northerly town in the Roman Empire, is close by, as is Hexham with its exceptional 7th-century abbey. It is, though, Hadrian’s Wall that most visitors will be eager to see, and whilst little more than a barely discernible ditch at some points, at others the wall is well preserved and worth visiting, as is the archaeological site of the Roman fortress at Vindolanda.
I was chauffeured out to Steel Rigg, one of the better vantage points, where the wall, framed against a mesmerising backdrop of never-ending Northumberland countryside runs along a spectacular escarpment, to visit what was described as the Roman Wall Show. Having braced myself for an afternoon of selfies with centurions, à la Coliseum, what I actually encountered was a quintessentially local affair – people here don’t call it Hadrian’s Wall; it’s just the Roman Wall – that’s been celebrated in the same place for over 100 years. Amidst the rare-breed sheep display, bouncy castle, and horseshoe throwing, was a crowd of very serious onlookers engrossed in what at first sight looked like it could be a bare-knuckle fight.
On closer inspection, what I’d happened upon was, in fact, the ancient sport of Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling, the protagonists attired in the centuries old standard outfit of velvet emboidered trunks over tight white leggings. With its own rules, time-honoured traditions and idiosyncrasies, it still thrives up in the northern counties and Scottish borders. And you’re not likely to come across that in the Cotswolds!
Matfen Hall Hotel, Matfen, Newcastle upon Tyne NE20 0RH
