Possibly one of the lesser known 'great little houses' of Britain but, with an obvious clue in the property's name, and the fact that it is a popular venue for American visitors, it is not surprising to learn that a big history lies concealed within this charming old manor house. Formerly owned by the Bishop of Durham, the estate at Washington was exchanged by him during the 12th century and came into the possession of the first 'William of Washington'.

He married the King of Scotland's sister and lived in a fortified house on this site, which was probably no more than a tower with outbuildings. The hall was added about 100 years later, and some parts of this are still visible in the existing great hall of the present house. By 1400 the Washington family had spread further afield, mainly as a result of fortunate marriages, and in 1613 the ownership of the estate had come full circle, to be once more in the hands of the Bishop of Durham. About this time, or shortly after, the rebuilding of Washington Old Hall took place, transforming the property into a comfortable, five-bedroomed gentry house.

Over the next two centuries, the house had a succession of tenants and then, by the end of the 19th century, it had become a working class tenement block with up to 35 people living there in appalling conditions. Meanwhile, descendants of William Washington's great, great grandson, who had settled in Lancashire for eight generations, moved to Northamptonshire in the mid 1500s.

Here Lawrence Washington became a wealthy wool merchant and built a huge, new family home. In 1656 his grandson emigrated to Virginia to seek his fortune among the tobacco plantations, and three generations later George Washington was born there. From his humble upbringing as the son of a Virginian tobacco planter, George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789, with the city being named in his honour, and his family coat of arms becoming the forerunner to the 'stars and stripes' of America.

But with his roots firmly established in England, and his ancestral history starting at Washington Old Hall, there is much memorabilia of George Washington's life set out in this 17th century house. Having deteriorated into an unsightly health hazard by 1936, Washington Old Hall was on the point of being demolished for redevelopment when a preservation committee of local people stepped in to save the derelict building.

It was subsequently decided to restore the property to its original Jacobean condition, retaining parts of the medieval house once inhabited by the Washington family. The project received generous donations from America, proud to be connected with 800 years of history and, in 1955, Washington Old Hall was opened to the public by the American Ambassador. President Carter visited the old hall in 1977, and there remains a strong bond between the village of Washington near Sunderland, and the presidential capital city of Washington in the USA, despite being separated by a vast expanse of ocean.