Burnhopeside Hall

House. Probably dating from the 18th century, Burnhopeside Hall was altered and significantly enlarged in the early 19th century for William Hedley, a pioneer in railway locomotive design, with a late 19th-century billiard room added. The construction incorporates sandstone ashlar, with a lower wing constructed of rubble; it has Lakeland slate roofing, with Welsh slate on the billiard room. The building is in an L-shaped plan.

The main house is two storeys with three bays facing the garden. A single-bay porch is centrally positioned on the front, housing a half-glazed door and a fanlight with glazing bars, set within a surround of pilasters and an arch. Lattice-glazed round-headed windows flank the porch returns. The front features a cornice and blocking course. Giant pilasters frame the pecked-and-margined ashlar facade. The tripartite ground-floor windows have aprons and floating cornices supported by acanthus and scroll brackets; lugged architraves and a sill band are present. The first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes, with the central bay projecting slightly. A top cornice and blocking course, with a low triangular pediment over the central bay, complete the front elevation. A hipped roof incorporates two central corniced chimneys.

A lower, set-back wing, two storeys high and four bays wide, has flat stone lintels over a renewed door and 3-light window; the first floor is blank, with ridge chimneys. A one-storey, two-bay billiard room extension, matching the style of the main house, extends from the left return.

Internally, the main ground-floor rooms feature dado rails, stucco cornices with classical moulding, and ceiling roses with an acanthus leaf design set amid a roundel of oak leaves. The hall has pilasters, and a stone staircase has a wreath and curtail.

A 20th-century, single-storey, one-bay addition to the rear is not of particular architectural interest.

Historical records indicate that Hedley designed the Puffing Billy locomotive engine for the Wylam Colliery wagonway between 1813 and 1815. He was also the first to demonstrate that locomotive weight creates adhesion and negates the need for toothed wheels.