THERE has been a lot of interest, but not a lot of information, in Little Burdon, following the snippet in Memories 226.

Little Burdon is a derelict Grade II listed farm on the A66 on the eastern edge of Darlington, near Sadberge. It was built in the 18th Century, and Memories was particularly taken by the early 19th Century lead firemark that you can see on the upper storey from the dual carriageway – it was put up when someone took out an insurance policy with the Globe company.

Several people got in touch to talk about its huge array of tumbeldown outbuildings, many of which were once nicely built and which still contain olde worlde features like stalls, byres and pulleys.

But everyone commented on its dilapidation.

“I was born over the road in Beacon Hill in 1942, and it was run down when I went down to for eggs as a kid,” says Malcolm Hall of Kirklevington, near Yarm. “It was never a posh place, but it was occupied by some old time farmers – lovely people.”

John Young of Darlington says: “Nearly 50 years ago, I remember my friend and I cycling down the old twisty Stockton Road. At that time, it ran from Sadberge past the front gardens of Little Burdon and on to Great Burdon.

“I sat in my friend’s basket on the front of the bike and we freewheeled from Beacon Hill to Great Burdon!”

John continues: “I cycle and run by Little Burdon occasionally and have often wondered about its history. I noticed its increasing dilapidation and decided in December 2013 that I would bike out and paint a watercolour of it while there was some of it left.

“It was a beautiful winter’s day, bright sunshine but bitterly cold. I had to work very fast as the water and mixed paint was crystalizing with the cold.”

At least John’s picture gives us an inkling of what it looked like in its heyday.

Other Memories informants mentioned that the last residents of Little Burdon were Harry and Gordon Barron. In 1995, Gordon, 76, told The Northern Echo how he and Harry, 81, had been subjected to an appalling attack by masked robbers who tied them up at knifepoint and ransacked their homes.

It was the first break-in at Little Burdon, said Gordon, in the 61 years he had lived there.

Gordon was noted for breeding prize-winning Clydesdale horses. In the late 1980s, Burdon Mastermind won the stallion class at the Great Yorkshire Show three times, and in 2000, Gordon called the fire brigade to help when his 17-year-old Clydesdale mare, Burdon Beauty, was too weak to regain her feet after giving birth to Burdon Patricia.

That, though, is the last mention of the Barrons of Burdon in the Echo’s archive.

In 2013, Little Burdon farm – three dwellings and three acres – sold at auction for £175,000. The estate agent’s blurb said it was “an extensive renovation project”.

HILLTOP Sadberge has had a signalling beacon since Roman times, it is believed. As Memories 211 reported, the Romans had a moated fort in the centre of the village, where St Andrew’s Church is now.

Beacon Hill is the road leading to Sadberge from Darlington – now the A66 dual carriageway.

On the south of the road during the Second World War was the Beacon Hill Women’s Land Army hostel. It had two dormitories providing accommodation for up to 80 girls who dug for victory on local farms. After the war, it was the base from which German prisoners worked on the land.

On the north side of Beacon Hill, in 1934, Sadberge farmer, Arthur Shepherd, gained planning permission to build for "four blocks of semi-detached temporary dwellings". Somehow, he managed to build five wooden two-bedroomed blocks by the roadside – some versions of the story say they were secondhand blocks as they had originally been built on Hundens farm, in Darlington, in 1920 for the prestigious Royal Agricultural Society show.

Somehow, over time, the temporary dwellings were bricked around and have become a permanent feature of Beacon Hill.