Crook Hall, Durham (must see)

Crook Hall began as an ordinary hall-style house built in the 13th century. Only the great hall and a screen passage remained from that early medieval building. There have been add-ons from the 14th to the 18th centuries. The earlier medieval house built in sandstone had a Welch slate roof. In the 17th century, the building was extended as a Jacobean manor house.

In the 18th century, a brick Georgian house was added, making the whole an 11-bay house surrounded by English country gardens. Crook Hall gets its name from its original owner Peter del Croke. Peter's ancestor Aimery, was granted the manor of Sydgate (as Crook Hall was then known) in 1217.

The current Crook Hall has views of the River Wear up to Durham Cathedral. The gardens, covering five acres, have been described as a "tapestry of colorful blooms" laid out as a series of rooms. They are the Shakespeare garden, the Cathedral lawn, a secret walled garden, a fruit tree orchard, the silver and white garden, and a vegetable garden with a greenhouse.

On a lot all its own, there is a hedge maze. It looks challenging. And one more thing, the house is said to have a ghost. She is a mysterious White Lady ghost who rings bells and playfully overturns dinner tables.