East Range To Rear Of The Old Manor House Hotel

The East Range to the rear of The Old Manor House Hotel in Bishop Auckland was formerly known as the West Auckland Brewery. This building, which likely served as stables and lofts, has been repurposed into a leisure complex and hotel bedrooms. It dates back to the late medieval period, with a 17th-century addition and alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Constructed from rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, the building features a concrete tile roof with stone gable copings. The west elevation, which faces a yard, is two storeys high and has a layout of six bays on the left and four on the right. The left section displays irregular fenestration with small windows and renewed glazing, a boarded door, and a small window at the right end. The left end bays are obscured by a 20th-century addition that contains a stair to the upper floors.

There is a straight join to the original structure on the left, which has slightly battered walls. A chamfered surround with an elliptical head under a relieving arch leads to a door on the left, which is now partly blocked with a window inserted. To the right of this door is a flat stone lintel over an old ledged boarded door, accompanied by a small rectangular light nearby. Another elliptical-headed chamfered doorway is located to the right of this, also under a relieving arch, with a second small chamfered light adjacent. An iron stair leads from the right end to a central half-glazed door on the first floor.

The left side has two 9-pane lights, the first of which is inserted in a blocked door opening and features 19th-century glazing bars and is top-hung. The right side has large quoins, and the steeply pitched roof is topped with overlapping stone gable coping on the right, complete with a roll-moulded finial. The right return gable has a relieving arch at ground level with a 20th-century 6-pane window in a chamfered surround. The first-floor windows include top-hung lights with 6 panes and a 9-pane window in the gable peak, all with thin timber lintels. The rear elevation has few openings, some of which are chamfered.

Inside, the roof of the original structure features large truncated principal trusses, while the second build has collared trusses that are halved at the ridge, along with ridge and side purlins.