Former Stockton and Darlington Railway weigh house

Former weigh house 1825-1826 by John Carter for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, converted as part of a hostel late 1980s.

MATERIALS: brick, that to the canted bay being neatly laid in Flemish bond, more roughly built elsewhere. Openings generally have flat arches in gauged brickwork and stone sills. Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: this has been modified internally with the insertion of partitions although the stairs are considered to be in their early C19 location, occupying the northernmost bay.

EXTERIOR: built in at least three phases, but probably all by 1828, certainly by 1839. The building appears as two storeys from the west and north, but three storeys from the lower ground surface of the courtyard and the former coal yard to the rear. The western elevation leans noticeably backwards.

The first phase is a broad, westerly-facing two-storey canted bay which originally faced the railway line, with a stone-coped gable to the rear. The side faces of the canted bay have six-over-six pane hornless sashes to both storeys, the front face being blind with a twin flued chimney rising from its eaves. This face caries a stone plaque that reads “THE FIRST RAIL OF THE STOCKTON & DARLINGTON RAILWAY WAS LAID ON THE ADJACENT LEVEL CROSSING IN MAY 1822” the plaque having a cornice and plinth. 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.

Extending southwards there 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 of the building. The western face has a single window to each floor, these not being aligned with each other. The southern gable is blind, 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 there is a narrow lean-to addition with a split level roof. This has a door to the western face with a blocked oculus above (reputed to have been for a clock), the lean-to roof concealed by a parapet. The northern face, which retains a timber gutter to the lower roof section, has two small windows (one being a Yorkshire sliding sash), and carries the plaque unveiled in 1925 by the Duke of York that erroneously claims the building to be where the first passenger was booked in 1825 (see history).

INTERIOR: retains what is identified as the original building’s entrance doorway, this being on the northern side to the middle floor, just inside the current western entrance door, the doorway retaining its multipaned overlight. The (lower) ground floor canted bay room is reported to retain its fireplace concealed behind later partitioning.