Number 2 Old Engine Houses, including marker stone, Shildon, County Durham

Summary

Engine house built for the opening of the S&DR in 1825 for the steam engine hauling the Brusselton inclines, converted to domestic use some time after 1831.

Description

House, originally the engine house for the Brusselton inclines operated 1825-1831 for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, converted to domestic use after 1831.

MATERIALS: tooled and squared local sandstone laid to courses; Welsh slate roof; rebuilt modern brick chimney stacks.

PLAN: central entrance plan with stair rising from the front door.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey house has a west-facing single-pitch roof, the west gable of 1 Old Engine Houses (separately listed) extending above, built off the rear wall. The north and south end walls are stone coped, each having a centrally placed tall chimney stack, the elevations being quoined.
West: effectively symmetrical three-bay elevation with a central, four-panel door flanked by two-over-two pane horned sash windows, with slightly shorter windows to the first floor, the central window being three -over-three pane. All of these openings have monolithic lintels, the windows having slightly projecting sills. The south end of the elevation is slightly covered by the northern end of a single storey range of outbuildings – this range being rebuilt in the late C20 in matching materials and style to the main house.
North: most of this elevation is taken up with a tall, round-arched opening which has been infilled with stonework. The arch is formed with a single arch-ring of large, flush-set stone voussoirs, the key stone projecting slightly, the top of the keystone being just below the level of the eaves of the west elevation. This opening is considered to have allowed the installation (and later removal) of the steam winding engine for the inclines.
South: this elevation is blind except for a now infilled circular opening about 1m in diameter set central to the elevation, its centre line being around the level of the eaves of the west elevation. This is interpreted as a former window opening. The elevation is quoined, the quoins butted up against by the rougher walling of 1 Old Engine Houses, the upper part of the west gable wall of number 1 being built on top of the rear (east) wall of 2 Old Engine Houses.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: the stone-built garden retaining wall that extends westwards from the north elevation incorporates a reset S&DR marker stone inscribed S 20½, this recording the mileage to Stockton.

NOTE: the surrounding area forms a scheduled monument.

History

What is now 2 Old Engine Houses was built for the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) in 1825 to house the rope-haulage steam engine designed to power the Brusselton inclines: hauling trains over the ridge between the valley of the River Gaunless and New Shildon. Together with 3-4 Old Engine Houses, built around the same time as accommodation for the engine man and fireman/blacksmith, and the attached but slightly later 1 Old Engine Houses, the building formed the original nucleus of the hamlet of Brusselton which was a creation of the S&DR. No buildings are shown at Brusselton on George Stephenson’s (1781-1848) 1822 survey for the line which does mark buildings further to the west at Low West Thickley and elsewhere.

On 1 May 1824 the S&DR invited tenders for the construction of engine houses for both the Brusselton and Etherley inclines, these buildings believed to have been built as part of a single contract to similar designs. A photograph, published 1925, of the ruins of the Etherley engine house, which was not subsequently converted to domestic use, suggests that the Brusselton engine house was originally a single storey building, but tall (the same height as the current structure) with three tall arched openings in its west wall. Conversion to domestic use appears to have entailed the insertion of a first floor and the modification of these openings to the current arrangement of windows and front door. Although at first sight, the more roughly built 1 Old Engine Houses looks older, its western gable wall is clearly built off the quoined rear wall of number 2, indicating that it is a later addition, possibly originally forming the boiler house for the steam engine. The large arched opening in the northern wall of number 2 is a typical feature of engine houses, designed to facilitate the installation (and subsequent removal) of the steam engine. The original function of the blocked circular opening in the southern wall is uncertain: the suggestion that this was a bearing for the shaft for the winding drum is discounted because it is higher than the top of the arched opening in the north wall. It is most likely a former window.

The Brusselton engine house is thought to have been the first in England, possibly in the world, to be used from the start to power two inclines to allow trains to cross a ridge. The steam engine was designed by George Stephenson’s son Robert (1803-1859) and built at their works at Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. It was a twin cylinder condensing steam engine generating 60 horsepower, double that of the engine for the Etherley inclines. It had been estimated to cost nearly £3500, but records suggest that it actually cost about £2750. The Prussian engineers Carl von Oeynhausen and Heinrich von Dechan, who visited Brusselton in 1826 and 1827, published a detailed description of the engine and noted that steam was raised in a pair of 15ft (4.6m) long boilers. Initially the engine drove a vertically set winding drum, but this was replaced by Timothy Hackworth (1786-1850), the S&DR’s resident engineer, in 1826 with a horizontal two-part drum. This suggests that the engine was set to work the two inclines simultaneously, probably in a similar way to Hackworth’s redesign of the Etherley inclines. This appears to have been short-lived because when visited and described by the engineer John Rastrick (1780-1856) in January 1829, as part of his research for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, only a single rope was being used, the inclines being hauled alternatively. The opening of the Haggerleases branch line in 1830 resulted in a significant growth in traffic over the Brusselton inclines, prompting the installation of a more powerful steam engine in a new engine and boiler house built on the north side of the line in 1831. The north wall of the original engine house formed the south side wall of the winding drum house which spanned the railway line as shown in later C19 illustrations. The original engine house was subsequently converted to domestic use, perhaps shortly after 1831, certainly before about 1860. The Brusselton inclines were closed as a through-route in 1858, the 1831 engine house and the winding drum house being demolished before the 1896 survey for the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map. The single-storey range extending southwards from the main part of 2 Old Engine Houses was rebuilt in sympathetic style after 1962 from a range of late C19 outbuildings.

The Brusselton inclines (the wider archaeological and structural remains of which form a scheduled monument) are known to have been influential in the development of other early railways around the world, the engine house being the primary focus at Brusselton untill the construction of the 1831 engine house. Together, 1-4 Old Engine Houses represent the best surviving collection of S&DR buildings dating to the 1820s, the period for which the line was most influential.

Reasons for Listing

Number 2 Old Engine Houses is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* retaining direct evidence (principally the tall arched opening in the north wall) of its original use as the engine house for the Brusselton inclines, thought to be the earliest surviving railway incline engine house in England, and possibly the world;

* as a good example of local vernacular construction.

Historic interest:
* directly associated with both George Stephenson (who engineered the inclines) and Timothy Hackworth (who modified the haulage arrangement);

* built for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the engine house at Brusselton was specifically visited by a succession of engineers and railway promoters, a major contributor to the company’s influence in the development of early railways both in England and abroad.

Group value:
* together with numbers 1 and 3 & 4 Old Engine Houses these buildings are the best surviving group of Stockton & Darlington Railway buildings on the entire line dating to the 1820s.

External Links

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