Bill's Walks

Round and About Butterknowle

Approx. Distance: 10 miles

Start: The Slack, Butterknowle (GR NZ 113253)

Click to view start position on Google Maps

Map : OS Explorer 305 – Bishop Auckland. Spennymoor, Newtown Aycliffe, Sedgefield & Crook

On previous walks in this area  in Langleydale and to Copley Chimney and the Steele Road I have also noted  many other footpaths in the immediate area which we have not walked and the purpose of todays walk is to explore some of these and look at some of the many interesting sites of industrial archaeology that abound in this area. The plethora of footpaths are a direct result of the  scope of industrial activity which took place here  around 100 years ago. These were mainly involved with the coal industry and associated industry such as lead smelting at Copley, where the lead ore from Teesdale was brought close to the coal before being smelted and transported to lead works out of the area. The coal was good coking coal and on todays walk we will pass by a fine bank of beehive ovens so named because of their design. There is also a great deal of evidence of the tramways and later railways used to transport the coal and other minerals as well as agricultural products.

Basically the route taken is a circular route around Butterknowle which means on a short day like today you are never far from the start at the Visitor Centre situated at The Slack. Todays walk omits the well known Skew Bridge just down the River Gaunless which was a very early example of a bridge built before building techniques were fully understood. Over the last few years the Gaunless Valley has been very active in promoting its many assets assisted by what was then the Countryside Commission (now known as Natural England), Durham County Council and Teesdale District Council as well as the Rural Developments Commission. This is where some of your taxes go and in this case I doubt if there are many who will dispute that it was money well spent. In latter days there has also been involvement and funding from the Mineral Valleys Project funded partly from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Some of the results of this work can be seen  in the centre which explains the area’s history as well as showing an informative video. They also produce some excellent literature such as the Guide to the Gaunless Valley and leaflets describing walks of around four miles in the area. Some of the paths used today feature on these walks.

We commence by walking along the road uphill towards Copley, past Copley Bents and after just over half a mile turn left (south) past West Garth and up a slight incline to High West Garth. Here we turn downriver along the side of the wood and then descend sharply down to the Gaunless which is crossed. There is an equally steep climb up the other side and at the first wall we turn left to walk above the river for half a mile. We now cross the old trackbed, here in good repair, of the former LNER and BR line from Bishop Auckland to Barnard Castle. This track is owned by Durham County Council and when funds are available it is intended to convert this to a railway path which will go through beautiful countryside. We continue east past Wigglesworth to arrive at the road which is crossed and we proceed towards Cockfield for a short distance before turning  onto Cockfield Fell. Here we walk in a north-east direction crossing several paths and then to the north of the dwellings to reach the minor road to Fell Houses. Here we  descend back to the Gaunless which is crossed (note the remains of Lands Viaduct built in 1862 a short distance upriver).

We now head north-west to Bluestone Farm and go back towards the river to reach the trackbed of the old Haggerleases railway. It is back uphill  past some old mining shafts to the  LNER line which is followed a short distance before turning right (north) behind Bluestone Farm and the cricket ground to reach Cross Roads on Lands Road. We cross here and continue north over Day Gill and shortly after Day Gill Farm turn left to  come to White House, where we turn left. Just before the bend in the road we go north again on a footpath and climb gradually past Wales Field and High Wales Field to  the road near Rowantree Farm. Many Celts planted rowan trees on their property for good luck and these include myself. This road (known as Crane Row Lane) is followed west for a mile to Cold Hirst.

The name of this road probably indicates that cranes possibly nested here in the past. The Wildfowl Trust  currently have four of these birds at Washington and are hoping that they will breed. There is currently a joint initiative along with the RSPB to have these fine birds breeding in the UK again and they have a scheme similar to that which resulted in the return of the ospreys in operation with planned releases on the Somerset Levels. Some have lived without publicity in  the Fenlands in England and a pair did indeed breed in Norfolk this year without assistance. At Washington they highlight from place names sites where they previously bred and it was interesting to see that Cornforth in County Durham was such  a site (a  ford where the cranes were).

It is downhill now to Emmerson House where we turn left on the access road to the farm past High Bank Farm and cross the road here to  continue to the next road near High Wham Farm. We turn right for 50 yds towards Soth Side and then take the path on the left  down to Crow Howle Beck to reach the site of Butterknowle Colliery where only the blacksmith’s shop and part of the pit heap remain. Keeping to the left of this beck you are on a fine path which was the trackbed of the branchline of the Marsfield and Butterknowle collieries. We pass the many coke ovens (there were over 100 in the immediate area but exactly 100 years ago the complex closed down as good coal supplies became exhausted). Arriving at the road next to a terrace of houses it is a straightforward walk down the road back to the start.

The Slack was the site of the brickworks which were made from the clay extracted. The bricks were marked with a thumbprint and were used  for the coke ovens. Here was also the terminus of the Haggerleases railway which took the coal and coke down to West Auckland. This line was developed in 1830 by William Lake Prattman and contributed greatly to local prosperity. Indeed it lasted  until 1963 when mining activity here had virtually ceased.

Sites of interest

1. Cleveland Dyke near Fell Houses is a rare outcrop of whinstone (dolerite) which was quarried here and other places where it is exposed, such as High Force and Cowshill in Weardale, Hadrian’s Wall and Craster.

2. Cockfield Fell is Englands largest scheduled monument and is just under 350 hectares. There are pre-Roman settlements and industrial remains going back to the 14th Century. Look out for the remains of bell pits. In 1869 the fell became a regulated pasture managed by the Fell Reeves which gives local stockholders the right to graze animals on the land  after paying a yearly rent.

3. Coal here is near the surface due to the Wigglesworth and  Butterknowle Faults and indeed there are houses in Woodland where the foundations are on coal.

4. Haggerlease Branch  joined up with the Stockton and Darlington Railway to take coal to Teesside and also carried passengers between 1856 and 1872 . In 1856 the construction of the Shildon tunnel meant that the Brusselton incline was bypassed and locomotives could reach the Haggerleases branch, but from 1862 to 1872 this was only on market days as the South Durham and Lancs railway (which opened in 1862) took all the traffic with its stations at Cockfield Fell and  Evenwood.

5. South Durham and Lancs railway ran from Darlington to Tebay where it joined the West Coast mainline. Its purpose was to carry the high grade haematite from West Cumberland to the steelworks on Teesside and transport coal from the north-east to West Cumberland. It was opened in 1861 and the Bishop Auckland branch followed a year later  joining up at Barnard Castle. It was known as the Stainmore Line and went over the magnificent Belah viaduct and Smargill viaduct (now a Nature Reserve) near Kirkby Stephen. The bridges were designed by Thomas Bouch as was Langleydale and Lands but he is sadly remembered as the designer of the ill-fated Tay Bridge.  The line carried passengers and was particularly busy on summer Saturdays taking holidaymakers to Blackpool. The last were carried in 1961 and the line closed and was dismantled very fast in 1962. It is visited on other walks not least the Deepdale walk where we pass under the equally impressive site of Deepdale viaduct. The definitive book on the subject  by Peter Walton entitled “The Stainmore and Eden Valley Railways” now costs circa £100 on the second hand market.