Walk around Cockfield Fell in early April. (L) Cockfield Fell is England’s largest scheduled monument – 350 hectares of heathland that has been quarried and mined since the 14th C. These remains are of a tramway from Gordon House colliery. (R) The tramway connected to the Haggerleases branch of the famous Stockton & Darlington railway. The line was naturally built for coal traffic; indeed the passenger station at Haggerleases was only open for a few months in 1859! The surviving piers of the Gaunless Viaduct are in the distance.
(L) Northern pier of the Gaunless (or Lands) Viaduct, which carried a railway between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle. Interestingly, the viaduct was designed by Thomas Bouch, who is unfortunately better known for the Tay Rail Bridge and its collapse. Sadly the Gaunless Viaduct was demolished in 1960s. (R) Remans of a bank of “beehive” coke ovens. Most collieries had rows of these ovens to turn coal into the lighter coke.
(L) April lambs! (R) Coast at Marsden.
Pictures from a walk by the Tees in mid April. (L) Old packhorse bridge over the Clow Beck near Croft-on-Tees. (R) Attractive path through a narrow strip of woodland near Oxen-le-Fields.
Struggling to follow the rights of way on Muggleswick Park. Often the official rights of way on moorland are lost to the heather. As moorland is open access land, finding paths is more about ease of walking than sticking to rights of way.
