St Hilda S Diocesan Resource Centre a Short History

St Hilda`s Diocesan Resource Centre – a short history

The newly established Diocesan Resource Centre is based in what many old boys of St Cuthbert`s school, Newcastle, will recall being the Priests` House where priests who taught in the Grammar School lived. The house was built, as Benwell Hill House, in 1864 for Percy Westmacott, who rose to become by 1882 managing director of the famous Tyneside engineering firm Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co. In 1899 he left Benwell Hill House and the building was occupied by his son-in-law Philip Noble until 1910. Then it became the home of W. Dodds, a grocer until St Cuthbert`s school moved to its Benwell Hill site in 1922.

Percy G B Westmacott. (1830-1917)

Details of Westmacott`s career can be found in the 1917 obituary on the Grace's Guide website which gives historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. There we read:

PERCY GRAHAM BUCHANAN WESTMACOTT was born in Edinburgh on 11th September 1830.

He served his apprenticeship in the marine engine works of Messrs. Miller, Ravenhill and Co., Blackwall.

In 1851 he entered the Elswick Works as a draughtsman, about four years after they had been started. Upon the appointment of Mr. W. G. Armstrong (as he then was) to superintend the manufacture of guns at Woolwich Arsenal in 1859, Mr. Westmacott was entrusted with the sole technical management of the engine works at Elswick, and greatly contributed to the development of the hydraulic lifting machinery department of the works.

In 1864 he became a partner in the private company of Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co. formed in that year, and managing director when the firm became a limited company in 1882.

In 1866 he completed a long series of experiments on the conveyance of grain, on which subject he read a Paper before this Institution in 1869, and in the same year he joined the Council.

He designed in 1868, in conjunction with the late Mr. T. E. Harrison, then engineer to the North Eastern Railway Co., the swing bridge across the Ouse, near Selby, and the swing bridge across the Tyne, at Newcastle, was also built largely under his direction.

Almost all the principal docks on the Thames, in the South Wales ports, and in other parts of the country, were equipped with machinery for operating the locks and for the loading and unloading of cargo, at the suggestion of Mr. Westmacott, acting in conjunction with the local engineers. The earlier giant cranes of 160 tons at Spezia, Malta, Venice, and Taranto, are among some of the examples of work carried out under his direction, also the hydraulic installations for dealing with cargo fitted in the large P. and O. liners.

He retired from the Board of Directors in 1910.

He was elected a Member of this Institution in 1862, was a Member of Council from 1869 to 1875, a Vice-President from 1876 to 1880, and occupied the Presidential Chair in 1882 and 1883. In the latter year the Summer Meeting of this Institution was held for the first time in Belgium, and in the Address he delivered at Liege he called special attention to railways and the advantages of rapid transport. He was frequently a witness before Parliamentary Committees, more particularly in connexion with the various Thames Crossings Bills, including that relating to the building of the Tower Bridge, and he devoted much attention to the manufacture of chains. He took great interest in the original Volunteer movement, and raised and commanded for many years the 1st Newcastle-on-Tyne Engineer Volunteers.

His death took place at his residence at Ascot, on 10th September 1917, at the age of eighty-seven.

He was a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1861.

Benwell Hill Cricket Club.

According to the published history of Benwell Hill Cricket Club it began under the patronage of Percy Westmacott in 1883 when a group of young men asked permission to play cricket on his estate. Permission was granted and the club established which still exists to this day. Percy`s son played for the club when he was home from university. Percy was president of the club until 1898 when he moved from Benwell Hill House. His son was president from 1903-1921.

Other notable members of the Westmacott family

Brigadier General Claude Berners Westmacott (1865-1948)

Benwell Hill House 1899-1910

During this period the house was home to Philip and Mabel Noble. Philip married Mabel Westmacott (b.1876), daughter of Percy on 15th October 1895.