Derwent Valley Railway (County Durham)

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Derwent Valley Railway
(County Durham)
Legend
Newcastle &
Carlisle Railway
Scotswood
Scotswood Railway Bridge
over River Tyne
Blaydon
Tyne Valley line
to Carlisle │ to Newcastle
Swalwell
River Derwent
Rowlands Gill
River Derwent
Lintz Green
High Westwood
Ebchester
Shotley Bridge
Stanhope and Tyne Railway
to Tyne Dock
Blackhill
Carrhouse
1858-1868
Consett Iron Works
Consett
Consett
Lanchester Valley Railway
to Durham
Hownsgill Viaduct
 Rowley
Weardale Extension Railway
to Crook and Bishop Auckland

The Derwent Valley Railway was a branch railway in

North Eastern Railway, it ran from Swalwell (now in Tyne and Wear) to Blackhill via five intermediate stations, and onwards to Consett
.

Background

In 1842, the

Weardale Extension Railway to Crook, which opened on 8 November 1843, from a junction on its leased Weardale Railway.[1] As a result, the DIC proposed an extension from Crook to the foot of the Meeting Slacks incline, which latter became Waskerley, to provide a southern shipping route for their lime and iron products. Having obtained an extension of their right of way from the Bishop of Durham, the DIC submitted the plans to the S&DR, who agreed to the extension as long as the DIC leased the entire southern section of the former S&TR to them. The Stanhope to Carrhouse section passed into the possession of the S&DR on 1 January 1845, with the completed 10-mile (16 km) Weardale Extension Railway from the Wear Valley Junction to Waskerley opening on 16 May 1845.[1]

After the opening of the Weardale Extension Railway and the completion of

Hownes Gill Viaduct under Thomas Bouch in 1858,[2][3] the DIC had pressed the newly formed NER to link Consett with the River Tyne via Gateshead.[4]

History

Constructed as an extension of the existing

Earl of Strathmore would not allow the railway to pass through the Gibside Estate.[5]

At its peak in 1914 the railway was carrying over half a million passengers a year with a regular goods traffic of timber, bricks and coal to Newcastle and iron ore to Consett.[6]

The railway is notable for an unsolved murder that occurred at Lintz Green railway station. The stationmaster, George Wilson,[7] met his death on the night of 7 October 1911. No satisfactory explanation was ever forthcoming despite one of the most intensive murder investigations ever carried out in the North East of England.[8]

High Westwood Station was closed in 1942 while the remaining stations survived into the 1950s. The line finally closed on 11 November 1963.[6]

The railway is commemorated in the Geordie folk song about an ill-fated train journey from Rowlands Gill, Wor Nanny's a mazer.[5]

Present and Future

cycle paths. The viaducts and bridges were repaired and the entire trackbed, with the exception of a small section through Rowlands Gill where the cutting was infilled, has now become a section of the Sea to Sea Cycle Route.[10]

In June 2020,

MP for North West Durham, Richard Holden, sponsored a bid to the Ideas Fund of the Department for Transport's Restoring Your Railway Fund, hoping to access up to £50,000 to cover the cost of an initial study into the feasibility of restoring a rail link[11] between Consett and Blaydon.[12] In November 2020 it was announced that the requested funds would be provided for such a study into reinstating a rail service between Consett and Newcastle,[13][14] although it was unclear whether this would focus entirely on the former Derwent Valley Railway or also include the former line via Birtley
.

References

  1. ^ a b "Stanhope and Tyne Railway". Disused Stations. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  2. ^ "Hownes Gill Viaduct". Engineering-Timelines.com. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  3. ^ "Hownes Gill Viaduct". ForgottenRelics.co.uk. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  4. ^ "Lanchaster Railway Extension". Railrit.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Derwent Walk Country Park". Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  6. ^ a b "Subterranea Britannica". Retrieved 23 December 2009.
  7. ^ Brown, Paul (7 October 2021). "The Lintz Green Station Murder". Medium.
  8. ^ Middleton, Terry. "The Lintz Green Murder". Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
  9. ^ "'Derwent Walk Express' and supporting bridge abutment and approach spans, non Civil Parish - 1437836 | Historic England".
  10. ^ "Cycle information". Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  11. ^ Baker, Ed (3 July 2020). "Feasibility Study into New Consett Railway Line Confirmed - Consett Magazine - Consett Deserves Good News". Consett Magazine. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  12. ^ Walker, Jonathan (20 May 2020). "Government will look at plans for new Consett to Newcastle rail or Metro link, says Boris Johnson - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  13. ^ National Infrastructure Strategy National Infrastructure Strategy p.41
  14. ^ "Restoring your railway: successful bids - GOV.UK". GOV.UK. Department for Transport. Retrieved 23 December 2020.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derwent_Valley_Railway_(County_Durham)&oldid=1050835711"