The Forstad family out in force at Muriel Johnson's wedding at the Staincliffe Hotel, Seaton Carew, sometime in the 1950s. In the front row we have (left to right), Joan, Olive and Jane Forstad, and Violet Smurthwaite.
Donor : Mrs. Violet Butcher
Location
A selection of photographs and documents kindly shared with this project by Mrs. Violet Butcher.
More detail »The Staincliffe Hotel, Seaton Carew.
The Staincliffe Hotel was built in 1869 as a house for the wealthy Hartlepool merchant Thomas Walker. The large villa was sold following Walkers death and the new owner added a billiards room to the rear in 1903. In 1921 the building was sold to Cresswell Gray, for use as a convalescence home for the workers of his father's ship building firm. The building was sold again in 1929 and converted to a hotel, the original conservatory was demolished in the 1930s and replaced with a ballroom. This large villa, formerly situated within very extensive grounds, occupies a large plot on the cliff top facing east over the North Sea. The building is of brick construction, painted and rendered, under a mixture of pitched and hipped roofs of slate. Its eclectic styling consists of several sections, including a main central section to the front of two storeys with attics and cellars, which has a shaped gable and a crennellated tower of three storeys.
More detail »