It was a bright autumnal day when my wife Carolyn and I visited Belsay. Barely a twenty minute drive from Newcastle upon Tyne, we passed the odd clumps and bumps of Hadrian‚s Wall, stand - alone fortified houses and magnificent country hotels. By the time we reached Belsay we‚d heard about the Border Reivers, the constant threat of the invasion by Scots and of course the Middletons of Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens.
Belsay is an exceptional historic site. Owned by the Middleton family since the twelfth century it is rich in architectural narrative and social history. Dominated by Sir Charles Monck‚s great Greek Revival house it also boasts grade one listed gardens, fourteenth century castle and seventeenth century manor house.
The garden path from Hall to Castle winds its way through formal terraces, wild woodland and exquisite quarry gardens with their rare and tropical flowers to arrive at the best example of a fourteenth century castle that I have seen for a very long time. Both Carolyn and I were immediately drawn towards the Castle‚s Great Hall – an elegant space that would have once been full of noise, colour and the luscious smells of food cooking in the kitchen below. We started developing ideas for a projected work that would fill the hugeness of the Great Hall.
As the year progressed it became apparent that time allowed for the shooting of my latest film was running out and eating into our creative thoughts for Belsay. We reluctantly and regrettably had to pull out of the Picture House project in January 2007.
We were always confident and impressed by the group of fifteen artists, designers and performers that had already been commissioned to respond to the atmospheric rooms of Belsay and asked if Picture House would manage without us. Of course it has and we are delighted to be able to provide an introduction to this wonderful, theatrical and eclectic mix of sound, visual, moving image and strange goings-on.
Anthony & Carolyn Minghella