Damian Cleghorn, who is Deputy School Manager of Newcastle University Business School, and his wife Suzi, knew little about their home’s history until the BBC began to delve into its past. 

In the first episode, presenter David Olusoga pays a visit to the Georgian end-of-terrace property on Ravensworth Terrace, in Newcastle’s West End.

Research into records, city archives and tracking down living descendants, unearths details of fame, theft, scandal and disease.

Incredible stories

Damian said: “It was really interesting to have our house featured and some of the stories unearthed about our property are incredible.

“We have learnt that even a house that is as ostensibly ordinary as ours has a fascinating past and I feel lucky that we had a team of professional researchers looking into the property’s history in depth.

“It was a real pleasure for our home to be chosen as my wife and I had seen the first series and wondered what the history of our house was.”

Tracing the property’s early history, David discovers the original deeds reveal that the house was built by local developer William Mather and completed around 1824.

Its first long-term resident was local lawyer and family man, William Stoker. Searching the records for evidence of William, David discovers that he is named in an 1835 report in the local newspaper involving a theft from the house.

Other occupants include Joshua Alder, a renowned British zoologist and malacologist, who moved into Ravensworth Terrace in 1841 – with his sister Mary – after selling his cheesemonger business to fund a new career as a scientist.

Joshua became a member of Newcastle’s renowned Literary and Philosophical Society, giving lectures, writing books about natural history, and liaising with some of the greatest scientists of the age.

Pioneering scientist

David travels to the Northumberland coast to meet Newcastle University historian of marine biology, Emeritus Professor Peter Davis, sailing out to sea to observe the marine life that Joshua studied.

Professor Davis said:  “Joshua, with Albany Hancock, carried out pioneering work on sea slugs.

“Alder and Hancock created a monumental, beautifully illustrated book which is shown in the first episode, and remains a key reference work, making their names synonymous with this group of animals.  

“I was delighted to receive an invitation to talk about Joshua in the programme, having read many of his letters and publications I have got to know him well.

“Currently, Joshua is known to few people; he deserves to be better known and it is marvellous that he features so strongly in the first episode and that making the programme has led to a plaque celebrating his life and work being placed on the house itself. A little-known Geordie who dedicated his life to science fully deserves this recognition.”

A wealthy newly-wed couple, Nicholas and Mary Sarah Hardcastle, also inhabited the property. Nicholas was a doctor and appointed medical officer to the local workhouse where he treated the poorest in the city.

The second episode looks at what happened at the house between the 1860s and 1900s. David identifies that the property was reinvented as a refuge for homeless girls and he unearths a story of scandal and untimely death.

During episode two, David also identifies that an owner of the house hosts séances and Newcastle University PhD student, Pat Beesley, from the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, discusses her research into this very issue.

Episode three tracks the history of the house through the First World War and the final episode reveals the final chapter in the property’s history.

A House Through Time begins on BBC Two tonight (Monday), April 8, 9pm-10pm, and will then be available on the BBC iplayer.