THE new name for Darlington's railway visitor attraction is "Hopetown" after the nearby terraces built in 1832 for railway workers. Hopetown is full of fabulous railway buildings, from the £5 note bridge to North Road station, the carriageworks, the locomotive works, the lime cells...
READ MORE: THE HISTORIC BUILDINGS THAT MAKE UP DARLINGTON'S NEW HOPETOWN ATTRACTION
OR: DOES THE HOPETOWN LOGO GET THE RAILWAY ATTRACTION ON THE RIGHT TRACK?
But what about the people? We were delighted to see this fabulous picture (above) which is part of a consignment of Darlington memorabilia that has recently come into the possession of antiquarian bookseller Jeremiah Vokes, in Coniscliffe Road.
On the back of it, in pencil someone has written: “Hopetown Hall Mothers’ Meeting Garden Party at Pierremont, Darlington, about 1905”.
The mothers really are in their finery. There are some magnificent hats, garnished with great flower blooms, on display. Although the picture is nearly 120 years old, is it too much to hope that someone can recognise a face – are you from a railway family that once lived in Hopetown or Rise Carr?
The mothers were visiting Pierremont, the former home of Henry Pease which still in 1905 boasted some of the finest gardens in the north of England - Pierremont Gardens have since been built on them.
But what about Hopetown Hall?
The scene of Hopetown Hall on Whessoe Road. Picture: Google StreetView
It was near the Hopetown Cut on Whessoe Road - the new McDonalds is close to its spot. It was built by the Quakers in 1871 as a mission hall but It finished that use in 1937. As it backed on to the ever-growing North Road shops, it was taken over by the railways, and it finished its life in the 1960s as the British Railways Apprentice Training School. It was demolished, perhaps as recently as the early 1980s.
Hopetown from the air before the demolition of the hall in the late 1970s on an aerial view in John Askwith's collection. The triangular terraces of the original Hopetown can be seen bottom left below the dominant Whessoe foundry. The cut under the railway can also be seen leading to Whessoe Road on the right. The top building in the crook of the elbow is the lost Hopetown Hall
“I recall seeing it in the late 1970s in a poor state of repair but with the sign on the apex of the gable end still readable and intact,” says John Askwith who has sent in two pictures of it.
Looking north from Hopetown Lane over the railway line to Bishop Auckland to Hopetown Hall. The picture was taken in 1964 by Geoff Jackson, a fitter at the North Road shops who was a rail enthusiast. The picture was found in the North Eastern Railway Association archive by John Askwith
As fabulous as those pictures are Peter Singlehurst has sent in a close-up so that now we have a proper view of this lost hall.
The former British Railways Apprentice Training School in Hopetown Hall taken in February 1977, looking north along Whessoe Road and sent in by Peter Singlehurst
Thank-you both for showing us this forgotten corner of old Darlington.
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