Images from a Historic Building Recording Survey at North Farm, Elwick, Hartlepool, County Durham, March 2024

This collection comprises images from a building recording survey at North Farm, Elwick, Hartlepool, County Durham. This work was undertaken by the Archaeological Practice in March 2024. North Farm exemplifies the earlier type of County Durham farmstead which took the form of a row comprising the dwelling house and attached farm buildings. But unlike many similar sites, North Farm never underwent the full-scale transformation into a planned farm with ranges of buildings - barns, byres, stables, granaries, dairies etc. - all arranged around stackyards. Instead, the evolution was much more piecemeal and haphazard, with buildings gradually being added then enlarged over time in the farmyard to the north of the original range, but with no clear overarching scheme being evident. The present farmhouse probably originated as a hearth-passage longhouse of late 17th- or 18th-century date which was later divided into two properties and heavily modified. Buildings continued to be added in the 18th and 19th centuries. The final phase in the development of the complex is represented by the construction of large metal barns and open sheds, characteristic of later 20th century farming, on the north and west edges of the farmyard.