Our History

In 1927, the Londonderry family gifted the house to Durham County Council and £20,000 was spent converting it in to a sanitorium for those suffering with tuberculosis. When it opened on 25 February 1928, it had 80 beds for women and children and a children's orthopaedic ward was added in 1929.

In 1931, the council invested a further £30,000 - adding a new west wing with 52 more beds and an operating theatre, together with a new staff annexe (Byron's court) to the east of the main building. This new annexe offered quarters for the medical officer, the matron and had 26 bedrooms for nurses and other staff.

By July 1948, the local Hospital Board took over the management of Seaham Hall and added a cardiothoracic ward. It remained a hospital for 30 years.