Raising the roof again . . .

THE word “mansard” cropped up very excitingly in Memories 180.

A mansard roof has two slopes on it, the lower one being much steeper than the upper one. It is named after François Mansart, a 17th Century French architect whose buildings were “renowned for their high degree of refinement, subtlety, and elegance”.

Harry Mead, the doyen of Echo columnists, has been in touch. “Redcar’s Coatham Hotel has a mansard roof,” he says. “It helped give an authentic French feel to Redcar beach when it served as a D-Day beach in the film Atonement.”

And so it does and so it did. In the 2007 film, it was Hotel L’Hirondelle.

The hotel opened in 1870 in the posher Coatham end of the seaside resort, as opposed to “fishy Redcar”.

It was originally called the Coatham Hydro as it tried to cash in on the Continental craze, that was all the rage, for hydropathic cures.

The idea was that cold, pure water, and bracingly fresh air, was the answer to every malady. The Coatham Hydro was built on top of an underground stream that provided its fresh water which was undoubtedly most efficacious in every way.

Perhaps the mansard roof was a deliberate attempt by the hotel owners to give their Hydro a Continental feel to match the Continental craze.

It didn’t really work for them as they ran out of money before they could complete it – if you look at the picture, you will see there is no balancing tower on the left-hand side of the hotel.

Eventually a ballroom was added to the empty side, and this became home of the world famous Redcar Jazz Club. Ronnie Scott, Cleo Laine, Johnny Dankworth, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Rod Stewart, Chris Rea, Eric Clapton, Mark Bolan, Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Joe Cocker all played there, as did The Who, Cream, Yes and Pink Floyd.

The Coatham Hotel closed in the 1970s and is now apartments called Regency Mansions.

The police box in Durham City Market Place is still a talking point even though it was removed in 1971. It featured in a couple of pictures in Memories 180. Shirley Armstrong writes from Coxhoe: ‘I worked for Chipchase, Wood & Co, a firm of chartered accounts who had offices in Barclays Chambers in the Market Place, from 1949 to 1959. Our office windows looked down onto the police box, and we could see the police officers directing traffic through the Market Place and down Silver Street. The officers would change every hour. In bad or snowy weather, they wore their capes which they would put over their knees when they were in the police box as there was no heating. I am 80 years old now and it is lovely to see these old photographs and to remember the happy years I spent working in Durham City.’ The truth is that some of our archive pictures haven’t been reproducing as well as they might in recent weeks. We apologise for this and are trying to trace the glitch.

Are there any other famous mansards in the area?

MEMORIES was invited to address Kirby Sigston Women’s Institute on Tuesday, in a wonderfully concealed part of the world. Kirby Sigston is up a lung-busting hill and down a deep dale to the east of Northallerton before you reach the A19.

It doesn’t really have a centre: it is a smattering of farmhouses farflung across two miles.

The ancient heart of Sigston – it’s an old Norse name, suggesting a Viking invader called Sigge settled here – is down by the boggy bottoms, through which Cod Beck flows.

All that remains of a lost village is a 12th Century church, dedicated to St Lawrence. It is on an island raised above the water level.

St Lawrence’s Church in Kirby Sigston

Another island nearby is said to be the remains of a moated 14th Century castle where the Sigston family once lived – although you have to have a good imagination to spot it.

Far easier to see is the beautiful 18th Century manor house, beside a lake on a tree-lined walk to the church, where the local lords lived after their castle fell down.

The WI meets in the village hall, which they accurately described as being “in the middle of nowhere”.

Of all the village halls that Memories has spoken in, probably only Girsby is more central to the middle of nowhere than Sigston (Girsby is fairly near Neasham and a bit further from Yarm).

Sigston WI members had to bring “something old” for Memories to judge, and the clear winner was a framed poem that has been in the possession of the Robinson family, of Northallerton, for getting on for 100 years. It is an odd rhyme, dedicated to “Me Mudder”, or “my mother”:

When me prayers were poorly said,
Who tucked me in me widdle bed,
And spanked my ass till it was wed? 
Me mudder

Who took me from me cosy cot
And put me on me ice cold pot,
And made me pee if I could not?
Me mudder

And when the morning light had come,
And in my crib I dribbled some,
Who wiped my tiny little bum?
Me mudder

Who would my hair so neatly part,
And hug me gently to her heart,
And sometimes squeeze me till I’d fart?
Me mudder

TALKING of long-lost castles, Memories 176 and 178 were looking at Kayshall Farm. It is an elderly, derelict hulk in the centre of Evenwood which is due to be demolished. Could it, we wondered, have been the site of Evenwood Castle where, on June 19, 1300, King Edward I stopped and sealed the Evenwood Agreement which settled a feud between the Bishop of Durham and the Prior of Durham?

But most people agree that the site of the castle is Church Farm, which is opposite St Paul’s Church, and where the Ordnance Survey map says there is a moat. Indeed, the lane to Cockfield is raised as it goes over what could be the depression of a moat, and reports coming in to the Memories desk this week tell us that the recent wet weather has caused the moat to once more hold water.

“I was born in Evenwood in 1931 and lived here all my life, and the castle was always where Church Farm is,” says Arnold Smith. “An old lady once told me that her mother said that they called it ‘fairy castle’ because it had a crenellated wall which overlooked the old school.”

The old school, near Church Farm, is now a community centre.

The story goes that this castle was once the home of a baron, which is why the proper name of the parish is “Evenwood and Barony”.

St Paul’s Church, Evenwood, opposite which there once was a moated castle

During the English Civil War of 1642-51, Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads are said to have built a hill near Evenwood and placed a cannon on top of it so that they could pour cannonballs down on the castle, causing its destruction.

Which brings us to a letter from George Beecham of West Auckland concerning Buck Head Farm, which is on a hill less than a mile south-west of Church Farm. “It must be 25 years ago now that they were opencasting around Buck Head Farm and we got permission to go metal detecting on there,” says George, “and lots of cannonballs were found by the detectors. I’ve always thought that something has gone on on that hill.”

Could Buck Head Farm be the spot from which the bombardment of Evenwood Castle was launched?

And one more thing: another source says there is a secret tunnel under the moat that runs from Church Farm to Buck Head Farm...

IN our attempt last week to correct the previous week’s mistake about the castles of Lumley and Lambton in north Durham, we made another mistake. Oh dear.

Many thanks to everyone who noticed our gaffe concerning the name of the chap who owns Lumley Castle, which is the backdrop for Durham’s cricket ground at Chester-le- Street. He is the Earl of Scarbrough and not, oh no, the Earl of Scarborough.

The title was created in 1690 for Richard Lumley, 2nd Viscount Lumley of Lumley Castle. He was one of the “Immortal Seven” who asked William of Orange to invade and seize the throne, and from his castle he secured the North-East for the new king in December 1688.

Dennis Gilligan, of Darlington, was interested in last week’s Sporting Archives picture which showed cyclists fording a beck in the 1982 Milk Race. ‘They are going through the watersplash at Little Hograh, near Castleton, on the North York Moors,’ he says. ‘It is between Westerdale and Kildale. Alas, I know it well as my wife and I nearly came to grief there a number of years ago on our tandem. We only suffered wet feet – happy days.’

The current owner of the castle is the 13th Lord Scarbrough, who is also called Viscount Richard Lumley.

He lives at Sandbeck Park, near Sheffield.