Summary
Standing, earthwork and buried remains forming the lower 1.3km of the southern Etherley Incline forming part of George Stephenson’s 1825 main line for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, together with the site of the St Helen goods station and the start of Robert Stephenson’s 1830 Haggerleases branch line.
Reasons for Designation
The Stockton & Darlington Railway: lower section of the southern Etherley Incline, is included on the Schedule for the following principal reasons:
* Period: part of the internationally influential and pioneering railway that opened in 1825, engineered by George Stephenson, popularly known as the ‘Father of the Railways’;
* Period: includes the start of the Haggerleases Branch, opened 1830, the first railway line engineered by Robert Stephenson;
* Survival: includes substantial lengths of well-preserved cuttings and embankments forming over half of what was one of the longest inclined planes built nationally by 1825;
* Group value: particularly with the upper section and summit of the Etherley Incline, but also with the continuation of the line alongside the River Gaunless.
History
Although the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR), opened 1825, is most famous for its pioneering use of steam locomotives, until the opening of the Shildon tunnel in 1842, these were only used from Shildon eastwards. To the west of Shildon, the main line consisted of two pairs of inclines to go over the Brusselton and Etherley ridges, linked by a short, level section which was horse-hauled to cross the Gaunless river valley. In this respect the S&DR employed and built-on the technology developed by various colliery railways and wagonways around Tyneside. Through the S&DR’s policy of sharing information with visiting engineers and railway promoters, the railway came to significantly influence the development of other early railways both in England and abroad. Many railways built in the 1820s and 1830s also used rope-hauled inclines combined with steam locomotives, many of which were designed by the S&DR’s Chief Engineer, George Stephenson (1781-1848) who became popularly regarded as ‘the Father of the Railways’. However, credit is also due to Timothy Hackworth (1786-1850), the S&DR’s Superintendent of Locomotives, the railway’s resident engineer, who not only hosted visiting engineers, but also made many alterations and improvements to both locomotives and the inclines.
The earliest documented railways in England, the early C17 timber-railed wagonways in Shropshire, appear to have included at least one self-acting incline (also termed a gravity incline): this operated by using the weight of descending full wagons to haul empty wagons to the summit. Clearly such a system was only workable where loads only needed to be transported downhill. Two centuries later, effective bi-directional inclines became possible with the application of steam power, using stationary engines housed in engine houses to haul wagons up inclines, the earliest being the Lancaster Canal tramroad near Preston of 1803, followed in 1805 by the Black Fell incline near Birtley, Co. Durham. Stephenson’s design for the S&DR’s Brusselton Incline appears to have been the first instance whereby a single stationary engine was designed to serve two inclines to allow a railway to cross a ridge. By the 1840s, steam locomotive design and railway engineering had improved to the extent that new routes were built without the need for rope-hauled inclines, although many existing inclines continued to be operated, some persisting into the second half of the C20, with electrical haulage engines replacing steam.
The Etherley Ridge was the northern of two ridges that Stephenson crossed via engineered inclines. The southern Etherley Incline, descending down to the River Gaunless, was 2,185 yards (1998m) long on a gradient of 1 in 30.75, when built being one of the longest inclines nationally. Stephenson designed it to be self-acting: a rope would be attached to the rear of a train of loaded chaldrons (coal wagons) at the top of the incline, passed around a wheel at the summit and then down to the foot of the incline to be attached to the front of a train of empty wagons. Once brakes were released, the descending train of full wagons would haul the empties up, the two trains passing each other using a passing loop at the mid-point on the incline. However Hackworth modified the incline so that it was hauled by the engine house at the summit, the north and south inclines being operated in tandem so that the weight of the descending train on one incline assisted in drawing the train up the other.
In 1830 the S&DR opened the Haggerleases Branch which divided from the main line at the foot of the Etherley incline, at the southern end of the monument. The branch line ran about 7km westwards to serve collieries on Cockfield Fell and at Butterknowle, these being owned by S&DR shareholders. It was engineered by George Stephenson’s son Robert (1803-1859) who also successfully saw the scheme through Parliament, gaining its Act on 17 May 1824. This was the first railway line designed by Robert Stephenson who went on to rival, perhaps even to surpass his father as a railway engineer. Construction of the Haggerleases Branch became protracted, possibly partly because Robert departed for Columbia in June 1824, but most likely because the S&DR focused on getting the main line open and running efficiently. Work on the Haggerleases Branch, under the supervision Thomas Storey (1789-1859), was given new impetus with a new Act of Parliament in 1828. The Haggerleases Branch was horse-hauled up until 1856 when the Brusselton Incline was bypassed with the opening of the Tunnel Branch, linking through to the northern end of the 1842 Shildon tunnel. The use of the Etherley Incline had already ceased by this time, following the death of the engineman in 1843, although the foot of the incline was retained as a goods station. The Haggerleases Branch was largely closed by 1963, a short section retained to serve a cokeworks up until 1969.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the lower part of the southern Etherley inclined plane surviving as extensive earthworks, cuttings and embankments, including some standing remains of boundary walling. Also included is the site of a railway goods station and the start of the Haggerleases branch line, these areas retaining the potential for buried remains.
DESCRIPTION: the lower part of the southern Etherley Incline runs in a straight line downhill south-eastwards from the former level crossing of Greenfields Road, first as a cutting for around 0.5km, then as an embankment for a further 0.5km, the last 250m down to Station Road being largely as buried remains through open ground between areas of housing. The line of the railway line descends around 40m over this course.
The base of the cutting is generally around 6m wide, this being wider than the top of the embankment supporting the incline to the north of the Greenfields Road (included in a separate monument). Although the 1840 Dixon Plan shows a single line down the entire incline, as Stephenson’s original design was for a self-acting incline, there must have been a double-tracked section to the centre of the incline to allow trains to pass. This double-tracked section would have been within the cutting. Near where the cutting transitions into an embankment, later earthmoving has partly infilled the cutting resulting in the formation of a pond within the cutting. Around 200m further on, where the incline is in the form of an embankment, there is an original accommodation crossing of the line, consisting of ramped approaches either side of the incline, the crossing marked with substantial gate posts to the sides of the track bed. The ramp on the western side has been partially truncated but retains a stone-built culvert for a drainage channel that runs along the base of the embankment on the western side. The next 250m of the line includes some sections of original boundary walling revetting the base of the embankment, some sections appearing to stand to full height. Where the embankment runs to the west of the houses of Bishops Court and Boyden Close, there appears to be a deep ditch along its western side, however this depression actually preserves the original ground surface, the land to the west having been built-up substantially in the later C19 for a set of reservoirs and as part of a spoil heap associated with the former West Auckland Colliery, part of the spoil heap overlying the incline just south-west of Boyden Close. Just before the line crossed Leazes Lane and Station Road there is the site of the former goods station which survives as buried remains and some sections of standing walling. The small detached area of the monument between Station Road and Northbridge Park (the access road to the housing estate built on the site of the former West Auckland Colliery) represents the start of the Haggerleases branch line opened in 1830.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this includes the full extent of the S&DR mainline between Greenfields Road and Leazes Lane, including the full extent of the earthworks of the incline, its walled boundaries, the approach ramps to the former accommodation crossing 300m south-west of Softly Farm and the area adjacent to Leazes Lane that was occupied by the goods station. To the west of Bishops Court and Boyden Close the boundary on the eastern side follows the rear property boundaries as mapped by the Ordnance Survey in 2022; on the western side the area extends to the upper edge of the raised land surface to the west of the line. To the south of this, the area extends to include the projected line of the incline which is partially overlain by landscaped spoil from the former West Auckland Colliery, including an extension to the domestic garden of 113 Northbridge Park. The area extends to follow, but not include, the eastern property boundaries of 114-129 Northbridge Park and the rear property boundaries along Leazes Lane, the area including the masonry wall along Leazes Lane. The public open space between Station Road and Northbridge Park, as bounded by tarmacked pavements, forms a separate scheduled area to include the start of Robert Stephenson’s Haggerleases Branch.
Further extensive remains of the original 1825 main line of the S&DR are included in separate scheduled monuments.
EXCLUSIONS: all C20 and later fence, gate and signposts, interpretation panels and their supports, litter bins and other street furniture such as benches are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included. The substantial posts either side of the trackbed sited towards the centre of the monument, at the former accommodation crossing about 300m south-west of Softly Farm, are considered to be C19 gateposts and are included in the scheduling.
