Former Stockton and Darlington Railway weigh house

This former weigh house was built in 1825-1826 by John Carter for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and was later converted as part of a hostel in the late 1980s.

The building is constructed of brick, with the canted bay neatly laid in Flemish bond and other areas built with a more roughly textured brick. Openings generally feature flat arches with gauged brickwork and stone sills, and the roof is covered in Welsh slate.

The building appears to have been built in at least three phases, likely completed by 1828 and certainly by 1839. From the west and north, it appears as two storeys, but rises to three storeys from the lower ground surface within the courtyard and the former coal yard to the rear. The western elevation leans noticeably backwards.

The original structure is a broad, westerly-facing two-storey canted bay which originally faced the railway line. It has a stone-coped gable to the rear. The side faces of the bay have six-over-six pane hornless sash windows to both storeys, while the front face is blind and has a twin-flued chimney rising from the eaves. A stone plaque with a cornice and plinth reads “THE FIRST RAIL OF THE STOCKTON & DARLINGTON RAILWAY WAS LAID ON THE ADJACENT LEVEL CROSSING IN MAY 1822.” The rear of this section has a single top floor window, a small inserted middle floor window, and a window and blocked doorway to the lower ground floor.

To the south of the canted bay is a slightly lower, single-bay addition with a single-flue chimney rising from the ridge of the coped southern gable, and a two-flued chimney rising from the rear eaves adjacent to the junction with the original section. The western face has a single window to each floor, which are not aligned. The southern gable is blind, and the rear has a small, blocked middle floor window and a door and window to the lower ground floor.

Extending northwards from the canted bay is a narrow lean-to addition with a split level roof, concealed by a parapet. A door is located on the western face, above which is a blocked oculus (reputedly intended for a clock). The northern face retains a timber gutter to the lower roof section, and features two small windows, one of which is a Yorkshire sliding sash. It also carries a plaque unveiled in 1925 by the Duke of York, which incorrectly claims the building as the location where the first passenger was booked in 1825.

Internally, the building retains what is considered to be the original entrance doorway, located on the northern side to the middle floor, just inside the current western entrance door. The doorway retains its multipaned overlight. The ground floor canted bay room is reported to retain its fireplace, concealed behind later partitioning.