The House That Roads Built

Standing on Cliff Rigg on an overcast May morning, the view is, not to put too fine a point on it, rather spectacular. The valley of the River Leven spreads below, patchwork fields rolling away to the Cleveland Hills, and a small cluster of houses sits quietly along Dikes Lane. One of them stops you short.

That bluish-grey building right of centre is Undercliffe. Built from dark whinstone quarried from the ridge directly behind me, with turrets, solid stonework and a slightly theatrical presence, it was always meant to impress.¹Yorkshire Post, “Undercliffe Hall: Beautifully Renovated Victorian Manor House in North York Moors National Park on the Market for £2.85m.” Yorkshire Post, 3 Mar. 2026, www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/homes-and-gardens/undercliffe-hall-beautifully-renovated-victorian-manor-house-in-north-york-moors-national-park-on-the-market-for-ps285m-5612343.

The sources do not entirely agree on who built it. One account names William Jones, a Quaker industrialist who made his fortune from chemical works in Middlesbrough before falling for this particular patch of North Yorkshire. Another credits Mary Backhouse, of the Quaker banking dynasty closely involved with the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Both accounts agree it was completed in or around 1873–74 — and both agree on the stone.

Whinstone is normally shaped into setts — small cubes used as cobbles for roads.²O’Sullivan, Dan. Great Ayton: A History of the Village. 1983. Building a house from it was, to put it mildly, not the done thing. Too expensive — or maybe that was the point. The dense volcanic stone, far heavier than standard brick, gives the building a fortress-like dour solidity. It is one of only two significant houses in the district built this way.

The original bill came to £3,675 — a full £1,250 over estimate. During the Second World War the house sheltered Italian and then German prisoners of war who worked on local farms. In recent years it was substantially restored. Reports earlier in 2026 placed it on the market at £2.85 million, though whether it remains so is not confirmed.³Teesside Live, “Incredible Great Ayton Period Mansion with Views of Cleveland Hills Hits Market.” Teesside Live, 21 Feb. 2026, www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/property/gallery/dikes-lane-mansion-great-ayton-33446996.

The stone, at least, was never going anywhere.

• 1
  Yorkshire Post, “Undercliffe Hall: Beautifully Renovated Victorian Manor House in North York Moors National Park on the Market for £2.85m.” Yorkshire Post, 3 Mar. 2026, www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/homes-and-gardens/undercliffe-hall-beautifully-renovated-victorian-manor-house-in-north-york-moors-national-park-on-the-market-for-ps285m-5612343.
• 2
  O’Sullivan, Dan. Great Ayton: A History of the Village. 1983.
• 3
  Teesside Live, “Incredible Great Ayton Period Mansion with Views of Cleveland Hills Hits Market.” Teesside Live, 21 Feb. 2026, www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/property/gallery/dikes-lane-mansion-great-ayton-33446996.