THERE are some curious corners in Darlington, but very few have quite the curiosity value of Faverdale Hall.

Drivers on the A68 sweep past the entrance to Faverdale Industrial Estate and assume that there is no more to it than a motley collection of unattractive light industrial units - one of which, Faverdale House, is currently controversially unoccupied and attracting the attentions of vandals.

(Curiously enough, this is not the first time this corner of Darlington has been attacked by vandals. In July 1992, Japanese characters were scrawled on a wall facing on to the main road. Because these have not been erased they have, over the course of time, become historical curiosities, as opposed to the outrageous yobbery that they once were. Faverdale, Hutchison Telecom in Lingfield Way, Feethams football ground and The Northern Echo's offices in Priestgate all fell victim to the Oriental vandal, whose message, although it appears inscrutable, was apparently "Looking for a job".)

The drivers continue up the A68 to the cross-town route roundabout, passing hundreds of new houses as, brick-by-brick and kerb-by-kerb, the ever-expanding High Grange estate gnaws from the north-west into Darlington.

They never know of the dog-walkers' haven hidden away in the middle: Faverdale Hall and its even more curious neighbour, Tower Cottage.

It would be nice to think that this part of the old Cockerton township took its name because, in the long distant past, this was someone's "favourite dale". About 100 years ago, this area was still being called "favourdale".

More likely, though, is that it can be blasted by the west wind, which has the Latin name "favonius".

The dale stretched from where the A1 motorway is today, over to Whessoe and Rise Carr.

It belonged to the Stowell family from at least 1770 - there are several Stowells of earlier vintage in St Cuthbert's churchyard, presumably from the same family. They were yeoman farmers and they married into the area's most important families - Bowes, Feetham, Ravenstonedale and Rowlandson of Newton Morrell.

By about 1800, the Stowells were so pleased with their status that they added the word "Stow" before their surname to give themselves a posh double-barrel, although it does sound as if they had a stutter.

The Industrial Revolution intruded into the world of the Stow Stowells in 1825, when the Stockton and Darlington Railway was laid through the Moss Carr bog along the Whessoe edge of their estate.

It came even closer in 1855, when William Stow Stowell sold land in south Faverdale so that the Barnard Castle branchline could be built.

William's son, another William, was the last head of the Stow Stowells to live at Faverdale. Born in 1836, he remained a batchelor, overseeing the estate farms and running his seed and oil cake business in Skinnergate.

His younger brother, John, was a keen foxhunter - in fact, in one of his books on the subject, John says "Favourdale" means "foxhunting". He created dry drains for the foxes to live in, and fed them on hens and ducks so that they were ready to be chased whenever he was giving foxhunting lessons to country gentry.

William Stow Stowell sold the Faverdale estate in 1897 and went to live in Buxton, Derbyshire. His warehouse in Skinnergate was demolished in 1912, so the Court Cinema (latterly the Court Arcade and now sheltered housing) could be built. He died in 1920.

John, his brother, went to Shrewsbury, where he died in 1899.

The new owner of Faverdale was Charles Hubert Backhouse, who was attracted to the estate because of John's foxhunting reputation.

Charles, son of Edmund, Darlington's first MP in 1868, was on the board of the family bank from the day he left Cambridge, but he does not appear to have immersed himself in business. Indeed, when Barclays took over Backhouses in 1899 they relegated him to the role of local advisor.

This allowed Charles to immerse himself in sport. He was heavily involved in cycling, cricket and athletics clubs in Darlington. But he made his name as a foxhunter, riding with the Bedale, Hurworth and Zetland hunts.

He immediately rebuilt Faverdale Hall, adding two wings to the Stowell's 18th Century house, and building large stables complete with tower. All the pictures of the tower from this period show it with a strange generating device on top, which presumably explains its purpose.

The rear of Faverdale Hall still features the date of 1897, in flamboyant script, of Backhouse's rebuild, but he only lived there for ten years. In 1907, Frank Robson, managing director of Sunderland flour millers EC Robson and Sons and a member of the famous Darlington horticultural family (of which more in future weeks), rented it from him for £250 a year. Mr Robson, a breeder and exhibitor of hackney horses, was also interested in Faverdale's fine stabling.

In 1910, Backhouse's health was such that he needed the balmy air of Devon and Faverdale fell out of favour. In the King's Head, 150 leading townsmen gathered to say farewell to "a thorough country sportsman" and "a sportsman among sportsmen".

Darlington's MP Herbert Pike Pease said: "Of all the pleasures this mundane life affords us, there is hardly any as great as foxhunting."

With that, Backhouse headed off into the sun - where he died in 1924 - and Faverdale Hall was sold in 1913 to the North Eastern Railway (NER) for £25,000.

But it was not the hall that NER was after: it was the estate, bounded on two sides by railways. This was an ideal site for a railway works, easily connected with the Shildon Wagon Works.

Cleveland Bridge and Engineering began building the Faverdale Wagon Works in October 1920, and the shops built their first wagon in August 1923. In the same year, the nearby streets of Auckland Avenue and Auckland Oval were built for the wagon workers.

Faverdale Hall was no longer the focus of this centuries old estate. It became the home of AC Stamer, the NER's assistant chief mechanical engineer, and when he died in 1946, it was turned into the All-Line Commercial School - a residential school for "advanced railway studies".

Instead, the emphasis was on the wagon works, which in its heyday in the 1950s employed 550 people and made more than 150,000 wagons. Even in early 1962 the future looked bright, as British Rail promised to turn the works into a repair centre for the whole of the North-East.

But on September 19, 1962, the Beeching axe swung and Faverdale was the surprise victim. It closed on June 29, 1963, with the loss of 366 jobs.

The Faverdale estate was bought by the council for £125,000.

The wagon works was turned into an industrial estate and the hall became a training centre for people working in Darlington's remaining heavy industries.

Today, the hall and stables are looked after by Faverdale Training and Adventure Ltd, and there is a private cottage beneath the tower.

While the light industry beavers away on its south side and hundreds of houses spring up on its north side, it is a bigger curiosity than ever to find Faverdale Hall and its tower still quietly stuck in the middle.

* If you have any information or memories about Faverdale Hall, stables, wagon works or curious Japanese graffiti, please write to Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF