Trifter

IT is only fitting that the world’s oldest railway bridge and railway track is in Co Durham.  The railways began in the North East due to the mineowners moving further away from the river valleys to dig for coal.  The railways were needed to carry the mined coal from the more far flung mines that were now being sunk.

Causey Arch, which soars 80 feet above the Causey Burn predates the locomotive.  The Grand alliance, a business group formed by John Bowes and other mineowners needed a waggonway to transport their coal from the mines around Tanfield to the staithes on the River Tyne.

The meandering Causey Gorge proved to be a crucial obstacle to the project.  The waggonway would have to cross it twice.

Navvies had to fill the lower end of the valley.  A culvert was placed over the burn and buried under a 100 feet high embankment of rock and earth by teams of men using only picks, spades and horse drawn carts.

Now the Alliance faced the problem of crossing the upper end of the gorge.  Local architect Ralph Wood produced a plan to throw an arch across the 100 feet wide burn.  His first attempt at constructing a wood bridge failed when it collapsed.  He decided to build a stone arch using recently rediscovered Roman techniques of constructing arches.  Wood threw his arch over the burn between 1725 and 1727.  Shaken by the failure of his earlier bridge and unsure of his new design, Wood committed suicide by leaping from the arch on the evening before the first waggon load of coal crossed it.

Causey arch and the Tanfield Railway were originally transversed by horse drawn trolleys on wooden waggonways.  Later stationary steam winding engines were used along the route.  Eventually these were replaced by steel rails and steam locomotives.

It became more difficult and expensive to extract coal from the Tanfield pits and the line over the arch closed in 1786.  The Tanfield Railway continued to carry coal, freight and passengers until it was finally closed by the Beeching Cuts in 1962.

Causey arch now forms the centrepiece of a picnic area and country park that is run by the council’s Countryside Department.

Footpaths with benches at frequent intervals run through the gorge which is bedecked with wood anemones and celandine during the spring.  There are information boards at strategic points telling of events and industrial processes of the past.  Local climbers travel from Tyneside to sharpen their skills on the disused quarry, especially on summer nights.

The only serpent in this Eden is the burn.  There has been so much industrial pollution in this area that the water is dangerous to enter, let alone drink.

The Tanfield Railway, the world’s oldest working railway, which is now operated by a group of enthusiastic volunteers runs to the eastern end of the arch where there is a section of wooden waggonway and a replica wooden coal trolley on display.

The area is open with free admission throughout the year, though the gates for vehicular access are normally locked at dusk.  There are toilets at the main picnic site which are open on Bank and School holidays and at weekends.  Wheelchair access to the gorge and arch is difficult due to the steep gradients.

Refreshments can be obtained from the neighbouring Causey Arch public house or the Beamish Hall Hotel.

Causey Arch can be reached from Newcastle upon Tyne or Stanley by using the A6076 road.