Distance : 43.48 Miles / 70 Kms
Ascent : 2937 ft / 895 m
Terrain : Trail = 29.17 Miles / 47 Kms ; Tarmac = 14.31 Miles / 23 Kms
Bike : CX / Gravel / MTB
Difficulty : Challenging
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/50466654
When you think of Beamish you think of steam engines, trams, old buses, a colliery, a fairground, an old school and cobbled streets with a sweet shop, a chemist and a dentist. You think of days of old when industry was dirty, noisy and dangerous and life was hard but honest. Thoughts that create nostalgia for simpler times when faces reflected back smiles and not the glare of screens, plastics weren’t found in the streets, the sticks and the seas, and news of disease and disaster wasn’t played to our eyes and ears at all hours. The Amazon was merely an impenetrable rainforest and the only next day deliveries came from the milkman. Nobody had heard of a Google, and “internet” was simply a phrase uttered by Yorkshire fishermen. Beamish Outdoor Museum is unbeatable for experiencing a different way of life in different times.
But I bet you didn’t really consider the fun to be had outside of its famous museum, and why would you? Beamish is otherwise simply a small village in County Durham just East of Stanley, sitting alongside Hellhole Wood, and just North of the small village of No Place. It sounds insignificant and not a place you would bother to otherwise visit. It does, however, sit on the Consett & Sunderland Railway Path, and provides a great starting point for an exploration of the byways of County Durham. I should also point out that it isn’t a hellhole either!
I was riding with my ever present cycling stalwart, Gavin, again. The route took us, via byways, South West from Beamish to Lanchester, where we would pick up the Lanchester Valley Railway Path. We would follow this East to the outskirts of Durham to join the Deerness Valley Railway Path that would take us back out West and then South as far as Crook. The return leg ran North-West to Tow Law and then North East, via Hedleyhope Fell, back to Lanchester. Finally, we would climb up to Annfield Plain to rejoin the Consett & Sunderland Railway Path, back to the car. 43 miles (69 kms), so quite an off-road ride for one day.
For the first half a mile we were headed No Place, in particular, but at the back end of No Place, we joined a bridleway and we were soon rolling along a wide track between fields. The time of year has arrived when all flora goes into overdrive…growing without restraint due to a perfect mix of sunshine and showers…green was rising up and out of everywhere. Cow parsley was putting on a dominant display, and before long it was being ground into my chain and cassette as we rode through narrower trails. I weaved along, throwing body shapes to avoid goose grass as it tried to cling and nettles as they tried to sting.
We had ridden up through Stanley Burn, across the Southern reaches of Stanley, before turning South towards South Moor Golf Course. Again, the track was wide and the surface of compact earth and gravel was good, as we started our ascent between the fairways, up to Wagtail Lane, near Fernwood. This is a long steady climb, but never too severe, so we sat in and ground it away, tilting at the wind turbine atop the crest of the hill. We rested only metres from it’s foot, as it loomed large above us, spinning its arms at the wind.
I pestered Gavin with one of the ridiculous thoughts that amuse me, but leave others wondering about my sanity…What if the guys forgot to grease the bearings in those turbines? They would make a right racket wouldn’t they!! I’m sure Gavins response was one of bemusement and mild irritation, but he is good enough to suffer my quirks.
As we rode up the tarmac a nicely restored Austin Cambridge overtook me, but I’m guessing bicycles were the only vehicles that the old fella overtook on his scenic drive that day.
We bumped on down a rough farm track towards Chapman’s Well Nature Reserve. The reserve is popular with bird watchers as Snipe, Lapwing, Heron, Kestrel and five species of owl can be seen, amongst many other breeds, but I noticed neither twitchers or twitterers as I flew past.
As we joined Edge Lane, we noted the expansive views to the West towards the Weardale Valley and Bolts Law. After only 200 metres of tarmac, we passed through a gate with possibly the biggest “catch of the day” we’ve ever seen…it wouldn’t have been out of place in one of the Jaws films. The gate sat at the top of a long descent down an old drove road, linking Lanchester with Newcastle. An initial strip of tarmac gave way to gravel, which subsequently gave way to a singletrack of rocks, roots and earth. It was still rideable, but only just in places…a mountain bike would have sailed through there I guess. This “Back Lane”, as it is known, dropped us out towards the bottom of Howden Bank at the Northern edge of Lanchester.
After a brief stop at a garage for fluids…it was 20 degrees and sunny…Gavin and I navigated our way through the village and joined the smooth Lanchester Valley Railway Path. The Lanchester Valley Railway was developed by the North Eastern Railway (NER) to run between Consett and Durham and opened in 1862. Within a few years coal pits opened at Bearpark, Malton, Lanchester and Langley Park, and they were serviced by the line, but passenger numbers were always light. Like many lines, it closed following the Beeching Cuts in 1965, and has since become a popular leisure pathway.
Pathways such as these are such a valuable resource to communities located along their route. As well as being an asset for the local population, they encourage tourism, which in turn generates customers for local businesses. And they are traffic-free. I wish Northumberland could develop a similar network to County Durham or other areas of the country!
The going was easy now and we made rapid progress. Pushed on by a moderate South-Westerly breeze, we covered the miles quickly. If it hadn’t been for my regular pauses for arty photos, we would have probably halved the time it took to travel to Crook.
We passed from the Lanchester Valley Railway Path to the Deerness Valley Railway Path just West of Durham, where it branched from the old Durham to Bishop Auckland line. The Deerness Valley line opened in 1858, to service the coal mines along its route, as far as East Hedleyhope Junction. Coal was transported out of the valley to ships on the Tyne. In later years passenger services stopped at stations at Waterhouses and Ushaw Moor. Passenger services were phased out by 1951, and the line closed for good in 1964 with the closure of the pits.
I pulled up near Broom Park to nosey at “On The Hoof”, a pathside pop-up cafe and takeaway, serving refreshments to picnic tables from a converted horsebox. What a great idea! I could imagine spending far too long relaxing in these rural surroundings and indulging myself on cake and coke, whilst gazing idly into the middle distance. But we still had 28 miles to cover, so it was prudent to pedal on and so we did…
After three or four miles of joining the Deerness Valley Railway Path we realised that the route had been gradually climbing for quite some time and it was continuing in the same vein. Although it wasn’t too taxing by bike, the steam locomotives that ran this singletrack line must have burnt a good deal of coal on their journey West. It was just as well that they were servicing the many coal mines of this area.
The section of the line beyond East Hedleyhope Junction was known as the Stockton & Darlington Deerness Valley Branch. As you approach the top of the incline (21.4miles / 34.4 kms) a wood to the right of the path hides the remains of Stanley Cottage Drift mine.
Just beyond the wood, the path runs over the crest of the hill before dropping sharply into Crook. This part of the line was known as the Stanley Incline. Waggons ran up and down the steep slope, suspended by ropes attached to a stationary engine located at the top. A conventional locomotive obviously couldn’t operate on these gradients. This operation serviced Stanley Cottage Drift mine and nearby Wooley Colliery.
Freewheeling into Crook, we took a quick refreshment detour to the shops on Hope Street (off the B6298, less than a quarter of a mile to the South of our route). Once rehydrated, we pedalled on past Roddymoor, and followed a gravel track to Sunniside, climbing away from Crook on the path of another disused railway. Old tramways, waggonways and railways criss-cross the map, once supplying the pits and factories of the area. Like the ancient roads of our ancestors, they too have become relics on the landscape. Besides the lucky few, most are forgotten or unrecognised by the travellers following their path.
On our journey from Sunniside to Tow Law we unknowingly pass directly by the sites of the previous Sunniside and Hedleyhope Collieries. Nothing remains to hint at the money and energy spent bringing coal to the surface…the workings have gone and the land is reclaimed for agriculture. The farmer needs only to scratch the surface of the land where miners dug so deep beneath his feet.
I hadn’t planned on adopting Roger the Boxer, as we passed him on one of his daily walks. Being a puppy, he decided that we looked like we wanted to play and he followed us quite some distance, before eventually returning to his exasperated owner.
Next to tick off today’s animal passport were the birds of Durham Hens, just outside of Tow Law. My mother bought her hens from here, which subsequently required me to build a sizable coop for them, but it was worth it for the eggs.
We passed through the Eastern edge of Tow Law before hitting trails which took us on to Hedleyhope Fell. The name Tow Law derives from the Old English “tot hlaw”, meaning “lookout mound”, taken from the name of a house which was built there before the ironworks and village were built. As with much of the area, rapid growth occurred in the 19th century after the Weardale Iron & Coal Company was established here in 1845. Blast furnaces were built and collieries opened. It is worth noting that a spring at Tow Law provides the source of the River Deerness.
My cowboy skills are coming on quite well. As we crossed Hedleyhope Fell, we gently encouraged a herd of bullocks to allow our safe transit. Of course, they decided to run ahead of us on the same path for some distance, turning back at intervals to weigh up a retaliatory charge, before moving to one side. We are obviously a formidable pair!
You can see now where the ride name comes from, having passed a “Crook and the Law”. County Durham has long been known as the “Land of Price Bishops”. I have tried to keep it short, but the reason for it goes something like this…
In Anglo-Saxon times, Great Britain was not one kingdom as it is today, but broken up into several kingdoms spread throughout the land. One of the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was Northumbria, which spread from the Humber to the Forth, taking up almost a third of mainland Britain. After successive invasions by Vikings and Scots, however, the kingdom was reduced to an area between the Tweed and the Tees, what we know as North-East England today.
When William the Conqueror came to England’s throne following the Norman Conquest in 1066, he realised that he couldn’t protect his kingdom from Scottish invaders until he ruled Northumbria. He also was aware of Northumbria’s remoteness and independence and saw that it couldn’t be easily ruled by a king in the distant South of England. The two most powerful men in Northumbria at that time were the Earl of Bamburgh, who held the royal powers passed to him by the old kings of Northumbria, and the Bishop of Durham.
William formed an allegiance with the Earl and Bishop in the hope of securing an adequate defence from the Scots. Subsequent Northumbrian rebellions demonstrated that this arrangement could not be trusted, so William sought to install a Norman Earl of Northumbria. This Earl, Robert Carmine, was massacred with 700 of his men in the City of Durham before he could take office. In revenge, King William led his army in a devastating raid on Northumbria, now known as the “Harrowing of the North”. The Bishop of Durham tried to flee, but was caught and imprisoned, where he later died.
A Norman Bishop of Durham, William Walcher, was installed, but rebellion was not completely subdued, so William installed an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria, Waltheof. Although the Bishop and Earl had a good relationship, the Earl was later implicated in a rebellion, and executed. The Bishop was then conferred with both powers and became known as “Earl Bishop”. Unfortunately, he was an incompetent ruler, which angered his men, and he was murdered in Gateshead in 1080.
His successor, Bishop William St Carileph, was given the same powers of the Earl, but they were restricted to an area we now know as County Durham…the Land of Prince Bishops. The land to the North of the Tyne and Derwent became the County of Northumberland.
So in effect, County Durham acted as an independent state for many centuries, ruled not by the King of England, but by the powerful Prince Bishops.
Are you still awake!?! I think we better move on…
We rode down from Hedleyhope Fell to Steely Hope Nature Reserve and then on into Cornsay Colliery. A white horse idled across it’s field with her beautiful young foal in close pursuit.
Again, no sign of previous mining exists here, but a nice steep tarmac climb out of the village will get you digging deep into your own reserves of energy. It is all rewarded, however, with a long flight down Bargate Bank into Lanchester, crossing the path of Dere Street Roman road as you go. As a note, the remains of Longovicium Roman Fort hide beneath a grassy meadow on the hill to your left as you descend, but I’d be amazed if you can make it out from this vantage point.
Back through Lanchester we went, stopping once more for liquids, before the final climb up Howden Bank, to rejoin the Consett & Sunderland Railway Path on the Coast to Coast (C2C) cycle route at Annfield Plain.
It was a nice feeling to reach this well known cycleway, as we knew it was now a gentle ride downhill from here to the car. The surface was smooth tarmac too, so the last few miles allowed us to spin the lactic acid from our tired muscles and debrief each other on our experience as we went.
Conclusion: Like pit ponies, we were tired, hot and dirty, but like Durham’s lucky prospectors, we were happy with what we had found in the Land of Prince Bishops.
