Vane Tempest Hall

Vane Tempest Hall is a former militia headquarters building, now a community centre, dated 1863. The building was constructed as stores for the 2nd Durham Militia, as indicated by an inscription on the corner turret. It is built of snecked sandstone with an ashlar plinth, quoins, and dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof with ashlar chimneys topped with tall, square yellow pots. The building is arranged in an L-shape, designed in a castle style.

The building is two storeys high, with five bays in each wing, and a corner entrance tower. Each wing terminates in a gable, featuring relieving arches and coats of arms. The canted corner entrance has a boarded double door set within a buttressed projection, with carved panels and an oak-leaf drip mould above the door. Above the entrance is an octagonal turret with blind arrow slits and a battlemented parapet. The wings feature mullioned and transomed windows with chamfered surrounds. Between the first floor windows are blind arrow slits set within three gabled dormers on each wing. The roof is ornamented with fleur-de-lis finials, copings on kneelers, and fishscale pattern tiles. A door has been inserted into the left wing.

Inside, the drill hall in the right wing features a hammer-beam roof, and there's a plain iron handrail to the central stair. The hall is recognised as the sole surviving militia building in County Durham.