Summary
Standing, earthwork and buried remains forming most of the level section of George Stephenson’s 1825 main line for the Stockton & Darlington Railway between the Etherley and Brusselton Inclines, including a short sample section of the 1856 Tunnel Branch.
Reasons for Designation
The Stockton & Darlington Railway: the route alongside the River Gaunless, 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’, this part being of particular note because it was the principal section that was entirely hauled by horses;
* Survival: particularly notable for the Hummer Beck Bridge, considered to be the best-surviving, least-altered representative example of the masonry bridges designed for the line by George Stephenson;
* Rarity: retaining the abutments of Stephenson’s innovative iron bridge over the River Gaunless, the iron structure being preserved in the collection of the National Railway Museum;
* Diversity: the sample section of the more heavily engineered 1856 Tunnel Branch illustrates the development of railways building on from the less substantial engineering of the 1825 main line;
* Group value: with the Brusselton and Etherley Inclines forming the route of the S&DR mainline west of Shildon.
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, however George Stephenson (1781-1848), the S&DR’s chief engineer, extensively engineered the route with bridges, cuttings and embankments to create a straightened route quite different in character to many earlier wagonways which generally took more meandering routes around hillsides. 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. Although the S&DRs pioneering use of steam locomotives was clearly influential, the railway’s continued use of horse-haulage, where it made more practical sense, is also thought to have influenced early railways, many of which also used horses. Indeed horse-haulage continued to be used by many mainline railways into the C20 as horses could be very efficiently used for shunting goods wagons.
The level section of the line between the Etherley and Brusselton Inclines crossed the River Gaunless and then two smaller becks, the Oakley Cross and then the Hummer Beck. The becks are crossed by conventional stone arched bridges, attributed to Stephenson, these being the best surviving bridges on the entire line dating to the opening of the railway. For the wider crossing of the River Gaunless, Stephenson took an innovative approach, designing an iron bridge spanning between stone abutments, thought to be the second iron railway bridge in the world after the 1793 Pont y Cafnau tramway bridge in Wales. The bridge was a level beam bridge using lenticular trusses supported with three pairs of iron supports rising from the riverbed. This iron structure was removed in the later C19 but still survives, forming part of the collection of the National Railway Museum. The lenticular truss appears to have been invented by Stephenson and was adapted by other engineers in the second half of the C19 for much larger bridges.
Details of the line are shown in an 1840 survey by John Dixon. This includes what is identified as a station halt at the western end of the monument, just before the line crossed the road and just before the start of the Haggerleases Branch opened in 1830: a passenger service operated from here to Shildon from 1 December 1833. At this point the line was single tracked but became twin-tracked after crossing the River Gaunless. Just after the line passed over a farm accommodation bridge a third line was added, the lines being further subdivided with multiple loop sidings immediately after crossing the Hummer Beck, this forming a marshalling yard for sorting wagons at the foot of the Brusselton Incline. The incline formed a significant bottleneck in the operation of the line and was eventually bypassed with the construction of the Tunnel Branch in 1856, linking the Haggerleases line to the north end of the Shildon Tunnel which had been opened in 1842. The first edition Ordnance Survey, surveyed 1857, shows both this new line and the original main line the year before the closure of the Brusselton Incline. The next edition, revised 1896, shows the Tunnel Branch (labelled as the Barnard Castle and Bishop Auckland Branch) with the lines lifted from the original main line except for a short siding extending from the new West Auckland Station, with its station master’s house built in 1871, to cross the Gaunless Bridge, ending at Oakley Cross Beck. The next map edition, 1914, shows this siding extended to a new, short-lived coal mine, Brusselton Colliery, marked as disused. West Auckland Station was closed on 18 June 1962, the line following the 1856 Tunnel Branch being completely closed in 1969.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the earthwork, structural and buried remains of the 1825 S&DR mainline between Station Road, St Helen Auckland to Burnshouse Lane, excepting the area within the domestic curtilage of Station House, the former station master’s house built 1871. Also included is a sample section of the 1856 Tunnel Branch extending as a railway embankment as far as the footpath extending from the south of Oswald Street. The area includes earthwork railway embankments and stone-built structures most notably including Hummer Beck Bridge and the abutments for the Gaunless Bridge.
DESCRIPTION: the monument covers the level section of the S&DR main line that crossed the Gaunless river valley on a gentle curve between the Etherley and Brusselton Inclines, mostly carried on a low railway embankment. At the north-western end of the monument, the 1825 main line is joined from the east by the more substantial railway embankment for the 1856 Tunnel Branch which linked the 1830 Haggerleases Branch to the northern end of the Shildon tunnel. The sample section of this later railway embankment, around 30m across at the base, provides a contrast to the more lightly engineered embankment of the 1825 line which is generally only half the width. This is a good illustration of the increase in the scale of railway engineering over the 30 years after the opening of the S&DR mainline, the Tunnel Branch only being a minor branch line. Just south-west of Station House, a footpath formerly crossed beneath the Tunnel Branch and the 1825 line via two accommodation bridges: remains of the northern abutment of the 1825 bridge survives exposed, the infilled remains of the bridge beneath the 1856 line is considered to survive within the body of the embankment. The masonry abutments of Stephenson’s Gaunless Bridge survive either side of the river, these being finely-faced stone ashlar. The accommodation bridge immediately to the south of the river, like the Gaunless Bridge, no longer retains its deck, it also has a rebuilt northern abutment. The bridge over the Oakley Cross Beck, effectively a large, stone-built, round-arched culvert, is complete. About 180m further along the line to the south-east are the infilled remains of a further accommodation bridge, this being marked with some exposed stonework. Immediately adjacent there is a ramped access between the top of the embankment and the field to the north. Although this might have been part of a staggered crossing via another field access point 25m to the south-west, this appears unlikely given the adjacent accommodation bridge. Instead this ramp is interpreted as an original access for horses working the line, providing a route to the water in the river. About 130m further to the south-east there is a definite level crossing over the line, this being marked on the Dixon plan and subsequent Ordnance Survey maps. About 120m further south-east, the A688 main road crosses over the S&DR on a raised embankment, the 1825 track bed surviving beneath. The next 260m of the track bed to the south side of Broom Mill Farm is level with the surrounding ground surface until the land falls away and the line is once more carried on an embankment to cross the flood plane of the Hummer Beck. The bridge over the Hummer Beck is a well-built masonry bridge attributed to Stephenson and dated to 1825. It is faced in stone ashlar and has a nearly semi-circular arch of voussoirs with a roll-moulded arch-ring string course, the embankments being retained by curving wing walls. There are fragmentary remains of original boundary walls at various points along the line within the monument, the best-preserved sections, generally standing to full height being on the northern side of the line between Broom Mill and Hummer Beck and also either side of the line towards Burnshouse Lane.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this includes the full extent of the S&DR mainline between Station Road and Burnshouse Lane, the area extended to the footpath south of Oswald Street to include a short sample length of the embankment for the 1856 Tunnel Branch up to the site of a removed accommodation bridge. The embankment for the Tunnel Branch extends eastwards for over 0.5km beyond this point but is not included in the scheduling. The boundary south of the Tunnel Branch is drawn to the banks of the river. Not included in the scheduling is the house and domestic curtilage of Station House, St Helen Auckland. For similar reasons the scheduling has not been extended to the east of Burnshouse Lane to include the area around Bankfoot Farm. Beyond Bankfoot Farm, opencasting for coal has impacted the landscape, although there are indications that the line of the S&DR may survive at least in part as an infilled cutting, the boundaries have been lost and the route is unmarked so this section has not been included in the scheduled area.
The boundaries of the monument are generally drawn to follow modern fence lines, the fences being immediately outside the scheduled area. Where boundaries follow stone walls, these walls are included within the scheduling as they are considered to be, in origin at least, the original boundary walls for the line.
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 A688 main road with its raised embankment is excluded from the scheduling but the 1825 track bed that survives underneath it is included.
