For a select number of families in the 19th Century North East, one magical ingredient would transform their fortunes – coal.

William Lawson, from a farming family, was one who was blessed.

The coal beneath his land enabled him to commission leading regional architect John Dobson to design him a grand home in Northumberland.

The result was Longhirst Hall, near Morpeth, with the foundation stone being laid in 1824.

Longhirst, described as Dobson’s finest classical design, followed soon after another of the architect’s country houses – Mitford Hall, also near Morpeth.

The hall was eventually sold to another wealthy coal owner, Sir James Joicey.

Now the latest chapter has opened in Longhirst’s lengthy and varied life, with the Grade II-star listed hall and adjacent buildings being converted into 28 luxury homes.

The project is being carried out by Durham-based Dere Street Homes, which has already converted former Northumbria University buildings in the hall’s 75-acre grounds into the 40-home Micklewood Park.

In 1936 the hall had been sold to Moores Stores owner, Harry Moore, but was requisitioned by the Army during the Second World War as military accommodation.

In 1948, the Moore family sold the property to the Home Office which converted the building into an approved school and then a community home for more than 60 boys, a use which continued until 1982.

The hall remained vacant until purchased by a private investment company in the early 1990s who completed extensive renovations, combined with a new build management training and conference centre and adjacent accommodation, and let to Northumbria University.

After just 10 years, however, the university moved out and the hall was converted into a 77 bedroom hotel, popular as a wedding venue.

The hotel closed in March 2014 with the property remaining empty until Dere Street Homes acquired it last year.

The Longhirst development follows close on the heels of Dere Street’s 13-home Hill Top Farm project in the grounds of Ramside Hall in Durham.

A previous Dere Street project also saw the conversion of a country house and small estate, owned by the Bainbridge family from 1865 at Wolsingham in County Durham,

Twelve detached homes and apartments were created from the family’s original Leazes Hall and grounds after it, too, had passed into institutional use as a sanitorium and then school sixth form block.

Dere Street managing director Chris Hogan said: “Longhirst is a very different project from the new build homes at Hill Top Farm and is actually more like our earlier development at Wolsingham which converted the historic Leazes Hall into four luxury apartments.

“We’ve been involved at Micklewood Park at Longhirst for over four years converting the Northumbria University buildings into private homes which have all sold so were very familiar with the estate when the hotel closed in 2014.

“It’s a fascinating project working within a listed building and the homes will be truly luxurious with the jewel in the crown being a nine bedroom main house with over 13,000 sq ft of space.

“We have retained the superb historic features wherever possible and are restoring the property to its original use planned by John Dobson almost 200 years ago. “