LAST week’s From the Archive contained pictures that had been filed in The Northern Echo’s library under Bishop Auckland.
One picture, from January 1975, showed an old ramshackle building described as “The Old Hall”.
Only it wasn’t the Old Hall in Bishop Auckland – it was the Old Hall in West Auckland, as Martin Roberts and Tom Hutchinson, among others, informed us.
The Old Hall was originally a humble farmhouse dating from the 1620s, which grew into some much more elaborate.
“It is essentially the story of someone in 1670-71 coming along and doubling the size of the relatively simple farmhouse, putting a posh porch in the middle of it, probably annexing a bit of village green too, and maybe starting to call it the Old Hall,” says Martin. “In short, it is about new money and someone aspiring to be minor gentry.”
As with so many old buildings, there are fanciful stories of hidden tunnels – one apparently goes under the village green to the Old Manor House, while another was a massive an excavation as it went as far as Durham Cathedral. Or they could just be drains.
Our photo was taken just as John and Elaine Niven had started the painstaking process of restoring the derelict building so that once again it is gloriously grand.
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