Lime Cells

Lime Cells

These lime cells date from around the 1840s and are constructed of brick and stone with stone dressings, under a pitched slate roof faced with timber cladding. They stand at the southeast corner of the former Stockton and Darlington Railway Company's North Road site in Darlington.

The building is a two-storey rectangular structure. The front elevation faces west and comprises four bays with projecting eaves. The first floor contains four 4-light windows, while the ground floor has four double entry doors. The secondary timber cladding that now fills the facade likely replaced an original lightweight screen. Both gable ends feature projecting eaves with oval-headed arched openings finished with moulded stone impost bands, designed to allow railway wagons to pass through; the opening in the south gable is now filled with brick.

The ground floor is divided into four separate rectangular cells where lime, dropped from railway wagons above, was stored pending transfer by road. The upper level contains large timber way beams supported on stone piers, which originally supported the railway track itself. Cast iron columns support a wall plate along the main west elevation. The area between the former tracks, originally open to the sky, has been infilled with wooden planking. The roof is a simple truss structure with tie beams and through purlins.

These cells were built during Darlington's period of urban expansion in the 1840s, when demand for building lime was strong. They appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1855 and are situated at the extreme southeast corner of a triangular site between the original Stockton and Darlington Railway, which opened on 27 September 1825, and a branch line to a coal depot that opened the same day. This site became the focus for most of the company's subsequent development in Darlington. Map evidence indicates the lime cells had ceased their primary function by the end of the 19th century.