The Old Hall at Thorpe Thewles.
from its erstwhile owners, the Conyers, and is another old gable-ended manor-house. It stands, surrounded by elms, near to a brook. The rooms are wainscotted, and over the fireplace in one of the rooms there was a hunting scene on the panel, depicting a stag at bay. One of the upper rooms was hung with tapestry. The estate was forfeited by the Conyers through Ralph Conyers having taken part in the Earls’ rebellion in 1569. Lying almost midway between the two Conyers’ seats of Cotham and Sockburn stands the old home of the Killinghalls and Pembertons, at Middleton St. George. The house formerly contained a painting, by Francis Place, of "A Pointer and Pheasants." An old cross in the garden is said to have been brought from Neasham Abbey.
Passing to the west of Darlington again, near the highroad leading to Staindrop, stands Thornton Hall, for many years the residence of a branch of the baronial family of Tailbois. It is a stone house, with high pitched gables, old-world red tiles, and mullioned windows, and has long been used as a farmhouse. Above the window over the main entrance are two gargoyles. An interesting account of this house, with a number of good sketches, may be found in Mr. G. A. Fothergill’s Sketch-book.
Several miles north of Thornton, a small old mansion with gables and mullions may be seen at School Aycliffe, and not very far away, in a north-westerly direction, the old grange of Midridge stands within an old walled garden, with a row of old elms leading along the road from the south. The house is a large treble-gable-ended building, and is said to have been garrisoned by the Loyalist owner, Anthony Byerley, who was a Colonel in the Royal army. His troopers are still locally known as "Byerley’s Bull Dogs." A little to the south-west, the old house of Newbiggin stands low, with solid stone walls, and the main staircase of the same substantial material. There was formerly a tower on the west end of the house.
The hall at Coxhoe, erected about the year 1725 by John Burdon, has a richly decorated interior of contemporary date. In this house Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806.
The northern portion of the county does not contain so many houses of interest as the southern; there are, however, a few interesting mansions.
Fen Hall, near Lanchester, is an interesting old house,
Fen Hall.