Wardle’s Burn, at the start of an exploration from the hamlet of Holmside.
(Top left) Formally all of Charlaw Lane is an unclassified highway, but the northerly section (joining from the left) rapidly becomes unsuitable for any kind of vehicle! The “summit” is busy with telecoms masts, a trig point and an old ROC monitoring post. (Top right) High level path in Sacriston Woods. Like many council owned woods in County Durham, these are now a nature reserve covering a former colliery site. (Bottom left) A very swampy footpath! (Bottom right) A curious goat back at Holmside, hoping for food no doubt!
Pictures from a walk heading north and east out of Stanhope. (Top left) The enormous Ashes Quarry where the “Great Limestone” was quarried for use in steelmaking. Activity peaked in the early 20th C and the quarry closed in the 1940s. (Top right) Approaching a group of houses now called Hillcrest, although the remote site was originally a smallpox isolation hospital (“Stanhope & Weardale Isolation Hospital”). (Bottom left) Following on old track around the bottom in the outtake, probably leading to the now-abandoned farmstead of Ravensfield. (Bottom right) Once on the moorland, the nominal footpaths were lost to the heather – it was better to take the long way round following the well-maintained estate roads.
