46 And 48, High Bondgate

These railway cottages, numbers 46 and 48 High Bondgate, were built around 1857 for the North Eastern Railway Company. They are constructed of Flemish bond brick with ashlar dressings, and have a Welsh slate roof with ashlar gable coping and brick chimneys. The cottages are two storeys high with two windows on the front elevation. A stone step leads to a partly glazed entrance door on the left, recessed under a wedge-shaped stone lintel. The ground floor windows are 12-pane sashes, while the first floor windows are 9-pane sashes, all with brick sill bands now painted below the windows. The roof is low-pitched, with a brick eaves band, a brick corbelled cornice, and brick corbels to the gable coping. A large central chimney stack and a smaller stack on the left end feature tapered square yellow pots with ramped tops. The rear elevation includes a small door and windows. The cottages are notable as largely unaltered examples of mid-19th century housing for railway workers. They were built in connection with the Bishop Auckland branch line, which began construction in 1854 and was opened in 1857. Their location overlooks the tunnel from which the line emerges, before crossing the Newton Cap Viaduct.