Minsteracres

[2] George Silvertop was in 1831 the first Catholic appointed High Sheriff of Northumberland following the repeal of the penal law.

[3] His nephew Henry Charles Silvertop, High Sheriff in 1859[3] built a Catholic chapel adjoining the hall, and dedicated to St Elizabeth of Hungary in 1854.

[5] It describes itself as a "Christian place of prayer with a resident community rooted in the Roman Catholic Passionist tradition".

[6] In the early 1960s Consett artist Sheila Mackie painted two large murals Agony in the Garden and The Conversion of Saul, each 40 feet (12 m) by 12 feet (3.7 m) for the Minsteracres retreat house; they were known to still exist in 2010 and are listed in the database PostWar Murals Database, last updated 2013.

[7][8] The east[9] and west[10] lodges, stable block,[11] entrance screen with flanking walls[12] and a group of farm buildings[13] are all separately grade II listed.