Numbers 3 & 4 Old Engine Houses

Semi-detached pair of railway workers’ houses, mid-1820s, for the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

MATERIALS: tooled and squared local sandstone laid to courses; Welsh slate roof; rebuilt chimney stack (using brick) to the east gable, stone stack to the west gable.

PLAN: reconfigured, originally a single room deep with single storey rear outshuts, these raised to two storeys in the late C20.

EXTERIOR: Front (north) is of four bays, the western bay being wider and the second bay from the east being shared between the two properties, the two front doors being to this bay, the first-floor window being split into two by a central mullion. The frontage has slightly projecting, well-dressed rusticated quoining to the corners of the building and all of the door and window openings, the lintels being monolithic, the sills slightly projecting. The gables are coped and have ridge stacks. Windows are horned two-over-two pane sashes, the single mullioned window being similar in overall appearance with a pair of narrower horned sashes. Attached to the west end of the elevation at first floor level there is a black and white S&DR ceramic plaque marked H1 in white on a black shield. Rear (south): the original single storey outshuts have been raised to two storeys beneath a flat roof with a low parapet. Extending south from each end there is a single-storey, single-bayed, gabled extension with slate roofs. These extensions are stone-built to match in with the original building.

NOTE: the surrounding area forms a scheduled monument.