About Highgreen

Highgreen Manor, a Grade 2 listed building , is a Scottish baronial extravaganza built in 1894 for Charles William Bell, a Durham mine owner. The architect was W.J. Ancell of Clifford Inn in London. There has been a house on the site since at least the mid-18th century when coal and lead were mined nearby.

The Manor is at the centre of an estate that extends over 5000 acres of wild, open moorland. Farming remains the principal activity in the area and the estate has 3 separate farming enterprises. Due to the altitude and exposed situation the land is only really suited for raising hardier breeds of sheep and cattle.

Landscape conservation is also becoming an increasingly important part of farming operations. All the farms at Highgreen are in Environmental Stewardship Schemes. A major woodland planting initiative is also in hand to provide habitat for the native black grouse whose numbers are rapidly declining.

Around the Manor are houses and outbuildings that used to serve the home farm. The old farm workers are long since gone and their houses are now homes for families for whom the hectic bustle of town life holds no attraction.

And gradually we are restoring the old farm buildings so that we can house new enterprises at Highgreen. Since 2000 we have been home to leading independent poetry publisher Bloodaxe Books, and to VARC which funds a yearly residency for visual artists as well special arts projects involving the local community.

Highgreen has also been the location for other arts related activities. We have hosted
week-end radio and screen writing events for New Writing North. Bloodaxe poet Peter Reading has recorded his complete works in both indoor and outdoor settings for Lannan Foundation. The front hall of the Manor has featured on the cover of 'Portrait Of My Lover As A Horse' by Selima Hill, another Bloodaxe poet. And in the wettest summer on recent record, the front of the Manor was transformed for a very successful outdoor production of 'Pride & Predjudice' by the talented and enterprising local drama group.