The Leather family cannon

96 The Leather family cannon from Middleton Hall

Overall length: 47 ¼ in (120 cm) Width: 18 in (46 cm)

Each of these cannon has a tapering 41inch barrel and flared muzzle set on an oak carriage with bronze fittings and brass sheathed wheels. The top of the breech is engraved with the family crest of John Towlerton Leather, of Middleton Hall, Northumberland. English, c1860. Provenance: Formerly in situ at Middleton Hall, Northumberland, the family home of John Towlerton Leather. John Towlerton Leather (1804-1885) was an eminent Victorian civil engineer whose company was heavily involved in the construction of the railway network throughout the North and Midlands of England. His most important contract, however, was with the War Office in 1860s and 1870s, for whom he constructed the Solent Forts at Spitbank, St Helens and Gilkicker and undertook a huge expansion of the Portsmouth Naval dockyard. On his retirement, in 1877, he was appointed High Sheriff of Northumberland. In 1867 Leather had purchased the Middleton Hall estate and immediately set about acquiring the surrounding land and extending the Hall, where he died in 1885. These cannon formed part of his collection and remained at the house until the last resident member of the Leather family left in the 1960s.