Bill's Walks

Elemore Woods and Pittington

Approx. Distance: 12 miles

Grade: Medium

Start: Littletown Village Green off Coalford Lane (GR NZ 339434)

Click to view start position on Google Maps

Map : OS Explorer 308 – Durham and Sunderland

Much of this walk was done some years ago starting at Rainton Meadows Reserve run by the Durham Wildlife Trust. At the time the size of Elemore Woods (owned by the Woodland Trust) was 70 hectares which is just over 170 acres. However a couple of years ago the Woodland Trust purchased a further 83 hectares (203 acres) of what was mainly arable land to the east making the total size of the wood, with its recent plantings, 154 hectares. When the newly planted trees are established this will be the largest deciduous wood in Co. Durham and is the largest Woodland Trust site in the north of England. On previous walks we have seen how fast new trees can establish themselves (Ajax Wood in the Derwent Valley and Lotties Wood at Sunniside to name a couple) and it will be interesting to watch the development of this wood. During other walks we have seen most of the sites owned by the Woodland Trust and full details can be found on their website. This is a worthy and very well focussed organisation which should be supported.

We start at Littletown which is an old mining village. The scenery around here has changed dramatically over the last 40 years and standing here it is difficult to imagine how high the pit heaps in this vicinity were. Now all is green and the planting and landscaping make this a pleasant corner.

The Woodland Trust make all their woods accessible to the public and although there is no public footpath shown on the OS map there are a good range of paths which we will explore. The route is clear through Dog Kennel Wood and just after passing Elemore Grange we turn south up Green Lane. The Hall behind the Grange serves as a school for children, mainly boys, with special needs and was built in brick in the 18th Century.

The old woods contain Sycamore, Ash, Beech and Elm and the site has many Wych Elm. Currently the Woodland Trust is thinning waste and this will continue throughout this year. Parts of Elemore Wood are on what is known as a Planted Ancient Woodland Site (PAWS) and some of the old plantations are from the 18th Century and because of this the Trust is treating the whole site as a PAWS. Throughout this walk we will also come upon marked posts as there is an orieteering course being established.

At the T-Junction Green Lane turns east, passing by Lily Hill Plantation, and continues uphill to just short of High Haswell. Note all the new fencing erected around the site. High Haswell, at around 500 ft high, gives extensive views in most directions looking out to the Pennine foothills in the west. Of more immediate interest is the view of the new acqisition to the north east looking across the valley towards Snippersgate and White Hill. White Hill is indeed the name that the new woods are now known as. This purchase cost £1.35 million pounds and was funded by Co Durham Environmental Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Biffaward, SITA, and also by local fundraising which some of you contributed towards. The distance from Littletown to the A182 at Snippersgate is 2.5 miles (4km).

We now turn down Chapel Garth to Low Haswell Farm enjoying the view in front of us where there are two paths. In dry weather you can descend to the valley bottom where the Coldwell Burn is crossed by a footbridge but in two places the cattle have made this very muddy. Today we will turn back west down the broad track to re-enter the wood quite close to where we left it. We take the broad track down to the burn which is crossed by a bridge and proceed along this track parallel to the burn for about 300 metres. The bank side to the north is fairly steep but where there is a gap we take the track up north-west for a short distance before turning left on a path looking down on the main track near the burn. We now walk along the clear track which heads due north just inside the wood to the top of the wood (GR355447) where we turn east to follow the wood edge. Here the path returns into the wood at the corner, descending steeply downhill down to the original path alongside the burn. Continuing east along this we eventually exit East Wood to enter the new land which you will observe has been planted with very small saplings known as whips. In total there are to be 90,000 trees planted in the land from here to the A182 and in addition there will be areas left for wild flowers which on the magnesium limestone soil are a very special habitat. For your route finding here stay west of spot height 126 and if you find yourself in planted areas take care not to damage the new saplings.

Eventually we come to Snippersgate Corner (GR372455) where the road is crossed and work our way round the edge of the houses to pick up the footpath across Murton Moor to Constitution Hill where we take the access road to Carr House Farm. This is on the old Salters Road which here is a track but from Snippersgate to the south has been built up as a road to Wingate and beyond. Continuing past Great Eppleton we pick up Downs Pit Road and turn south into Hetton Lyons Country Park. Here we find another excellent restoration scheme with ponds and fishing lakes, populated by many birds. Apart from the ubiqitious mallard and black headed gulls there were also many coot on the lakes as well as other gulls, tufted duck and moorhen. We now cross the Stephenson Walk near to Stephenson Lake. This is a walk devised by Sunderland City and follows the original railway from Hetton le Hill to the River Wear near to Monkwearmouth Bridge where the coal transported was discharged on to colliers. This was the first purpose built railway in the world, built by George Stephenson’s brother Robert. There is a blue plaque in Hetton Lyons, passed on the Stephenson route at the end of a terrace of houses where he lived.

We now follow a pleasant railway path from here to Low Pittington which was another very early railway. Part of this was walked from Houghall to Sherburn on the Weardale Way walk from Finchale to Shincliffe on the return route through to Pittington. This railway was started in 1836 from Sunderland to Ryhope and by 1837 it had got to Sherburn, so the track on which we are walking is 137 years old. The route reached Shincliffe by 1837 and here was the site of Durham’s first railway station. The route was rope hauled until 1857 when locomotives were used and in 1893 there was a branch which left the track near Sherburn Leper Hospital to enter Durham at Elvet. This was never a great success and Elvet Station closed for general use in 1931 although it was open every year for the Durham Miner’s Gala when it was very busy. The last train was in 1953 when it was used by a European circus which was appearing in Durham.

This is a pleasant, easy walk with a lot of bird life after it gets through Hetton. At Low Pittigton we take the path at the Blacksmith’s Arms to High Pittington and follow the road to Hallgarth Hotel and the lovely church of St Lawrence. Nickolaus Pevsner describes the north aisle as one of the most exciting pieces of architecture in County Durham and this was the work of Bishop Pudsey’s men. The church itself is much older and goes back to Saxon times and is contemporary with Escomb and Jarrow. On leaving the church we continue to Littletown Farm where we turn east along the footpath to Littletown reaching the village near the site of the old Duke of York pub.