Historically, the Allendale Estates fell into several distinct areas in Northumberland and Yorkshire.
In 1786, the marriage of Diana Wentworth Blackett to Thomas Richard Beaumont united three of the key lines of the present family’s ancestry – Wentworth, Blackett and Beaumont – and these names have been continued in the family down to the present day. It also confirmed the family’s ownership of land and property in the Tyne Valley, elsewhere in North-east England, and around Barnsley, Wakefield and Huddersfield in Yorkshire.
Ownership of these estates and of the mineral rights brought the family great wealth and increased prosperity in the area for many years. However in the late 19th and early 20th century competition from overseas and the industrial depression hit these industries hard. Mineral owners like the Beaumont family were compensated but they decided to sell the majority of their Yorkshire estates, selling land and almost all of the properties held there by the family including Bretton Hall, the family home since the 1790s. The Bywell Estate in Northumberland had been in the family since 1810 but in 1947 it became the family’s main residence, when the family moved to Bywell Hall.
In 2002 Wentworth Peter Ismay Beaumont, Lord Allendale, became the 4th Viscount Allendale. The heir to the title is the Honourable Wentworth Ambrose Ismay Beaumont.
