Summary
Standing, earthwork and buried remains of the summit and eastern and western Brusselton Inclines forming part of George Stephenson’s 1825 main line for the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Divided into three areas by Brusselton Lane and the A6072.
Reasons for Designation
The Stockton & Darlington Railway: Brusselton Inclines, 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’;
* Documentation: significance is enhanced by recorded accounts of the visiting engineers Oeynhausen and Dechan (Prussia, 1826-1827), Rastrick (1829) and Minard (France, before 1834);
* Survival: the embankments either side of Brusselton Lane, particularly with the run of exposed in situ sleeper stones extending for over 100m is particularly notable, the survival of structures at the summit adding to the monument’s significance;
* Rarity: believed to be the earliest pair of inclined planes designed from the start to be operated using a single engine house;
* Group value: with the Etherley Inclines to the north-west and the listed buildings at Brusselton, these including the original engine house, converted to domestic use, along with the pre-1850 railway workers’ cottages.
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, bi-directional inclines became practical 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.
Brusselton was the southern of the two high points that Stephenson crossed via engineered inclines, the line running west to east. The western incline was 1,851yards (1693m) long, rising in a straight line about 50m from what is now Bankfoot Farm close to the River Gaunless. The eastern incline was shorter, 825yards (754m) and had a gentle curve around mid-point, descending about 23m to what is now Hackworth Industrial Park, an industrial estate developed from the later C19 railway works at Shildon. Both inclines had gradients of 1 in 33.5. The first steam engine sited at the summit was designed by George Stephenson’s son Robert (1803-1859) and built at their works at Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. It was a twin cylinder condensing steam engine generating 60 horsepower, double that of the engine for the Etherley inclines. It had been estimated to cost nearly £3500, but records suggest that it actually cost about £2750, around 4.5 times that of a new locomotive. The Prussian engineers Carl von Oeynhausen and Heinrich von Dechan, who visited in 1826 and 1827, published a detailed description of the engine and noted that steam was raised in a pair of 15ft (4.6m) long boilers. Initially the engine drove a vertically set winding drum, but this was replaced by Hackworth in 1826 with a horizontal two-part drum, suggesting that the engine was set to work the two inclines simultaneously, probably in a similar way to Hackworth’s redesign of the Etherley inclines. This appears to have been short-lived because when visited and described by the engineer John Rastrick (1780-1856) in January 1829, as part of his research for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, only a single rope was being used, the inclines being hauled alternatively. The opening of the Haggerleases Branch to the collieries of Cockfield Fell and Butterknowle in 1830 increased the traffic over Brusselton. This prompted, in 1831, the installation of a new, 80 horsepower engine, with a new engine and boiler house constructed on the north side of the tracks, the earlier engine house subsequently being converted to domestic use. This new arrangement, illustrated by the French civil engineer Charles Joseph Minard (published 1834), appears to have returned to Hackworth’s approach of using two winding drums of differing diameters to allow the two inclines to be wound in tandem. Most of the traffic over the inclines consisted of chaldrons (coal wagons), one day in the 1830s seeing 67 sets of 12 wagons going over Brusselton, carrying 2,120 tons of coal; from 1 December 1833 there was also a regular passenger service using the route.
The Dixon plan of 1840 shows the line in detail, including the bridge over Brusselton Lane (demolished 1954), and the two accommodation bridges provided for farm access: Milk Bridge over the east incline (also partially demolished in the 1950s) and the still intact bridge just to the west of Brusselton Lane which dates to 1831. The Dixon plan also clearly shows the arrangement at the summit: the railway lines, engine houses and the original pair of cottages, as well as the pair of circular ponds which fed the boilers. However, Brusselton formed a bottleneck in the efficient operation of the railway and was bypassed with the construction of the 1856 Tunnel Branch between West Auckland and the northern end of the 1842 Shildon Tunnel. The Brusselton inclines were closed as a through route in 1858, although track was retained forming a siding extending from Shildon works as far as Low West Thickley into the mid-C20. The first edition Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1857, shows the circular ponds overbuilt by a larger, nearly square reservoir which still holds water. The next map edition, revised 1896, shows that the 1831 engine house had been demolished, replaced by a terrace of workers' housing, a shorter terrace extending along the south side of the line to the west of the original cottages. The northern terrace and part of the southern terrace were demolished sometime between maps published in 1967 and 1982 (probably 1971), their sites being relandscaped, the short run of sleeper stones to the east of the summit being relaid for public display, those exposed on the western incline considered to be largely in their original positions.
George Stephenson's 1822 survey for the S&DR does not show any buildings at Brusselton but does mark buildings elsewhere – all the houses at Brusselton were built for the railway. Being in domestic use, these houses are not included in the scheduling but are instead Grade II listed: they are important components to understanding the operation and history of the inclines. The cottage 2 Old Engine Houses, which faces west, is considered to have been the engine house that contained the twin cylindered steam engine sketched by Rastrick in 1829, probably built in 1824 and then converted to domestic use sometime after 1831 following the construction of the new engine house on the north side of the line. The pair of cottages, 3-4 Old Engine Houses, are thought to have been built for the engine man and fireman/blacksmith at the same time as the original engine house. The tender for the construction of these buildings, together with similar ones at the top of the Etherley Inclines (part of a separate monument), was advertised in May 1824. Photographs of the buildings at Etherley before their demolition around 1980 suggests that the Brusselton engine house was originally a tall single storey with three tall arched windows to the west wall, these being reconfigured into the current arrangement of windows and front door with the insertion of the first floor when converted to domestic use, probably in the 1830s. The more roughly built 1 Old Engine Houses is considered to be slightly later because its western gable wall rises from the quoined rear wall of number 2. In origin it may have been the boiler house for the steam engine.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the surviving earthworks, boundary walling and other features both standing and buried that are associated with the Brusselton inclined planes. This includes the standing structure of the reservoir, the Brusselton accommodation bridge and the remains of the Milk Bridge. Excluded from the area are the houses and domestic curtilage that survive at the summit of the inclines but are in private ownership: those built by the S&DR before 1850 are separately listed as Grade II listed buildings.
DESCRIPTION: the small settlement of Brusselton, sited on a north-facing hillside, forms the summit of the inclines, one incline rising in a straight line from the Gaunless Valley to the west, the other descending down to Hackworth Industrial Park (the former Shildon railway works) to the east, this incline having a slight north-eastwards curve just down-hill from Milk Bridge.
Being in domestic use, the houses at Brusselton are not included in the monument, although they are key components to understanding the operation and history of the inclines as outlined in the preceding history section. The main access road, along the north side of the houses, follows the original railway track bed, diverging slightly northwards around 50m west of South Terrace. To the north of 1 and 2 Old Engine Houses (the latter considered to be the 1824 engine house, converted to domestic use probably in the 1830s) is the site of the 1831 engine house with its boiler house and chimney. Although this was demolished and replaced by a terrace of houses in the later C19, buried remains still potentially survive within the landscaped side of the cutting. Archaeological remains of the demolished late C19 terrace are also included in the monument. The stone boundary wall to the north, along with the other boundary walls used as boundaries for the monument, are all thought to have originated with the establishment of the inclines in the mid-1820s. To the south of the houses, the nearly square reservoir which still holds water and was built between 1840 and 1857 to replace the original pair of circular ponds, is formed by a raised dam wall on the west, south and east sides. The two ponds depicted by Dixon in 1840 are considered to survive as features cut into the original ground surface beneath the reservoir. The sediments within the reservoir are included in the monument because they potentially include C19 items related to the railway that were dumped here as refuse.
The monument includes the western incline as far as Low West Thickley, over most of this section the incline being in the form of a railway embankment. For much of its length, the base of the embankment is revetted with stone walling which then continues as the boundary walls to the line. The bridge crossing Brusselton Lane was demolished in 1954, just leaving parts of its western wing walls in situ, however the accommodation bridge immediately to the west survives complete with repaired parapets. Close by there is a weathered boundary marker stone, and on top of the embankment just east of Brussleton Lane there is a S&DR milepost. The track bed east of Brusselton Lane retains a continuous run of paired sleeper stones which are exposed for over 100m. Further sleeper stones remain in situ on the western side of Brusselton Lane. The shorter run of sleeper stones to the east of Old Engine Houses are not in their original locations. Further sleeper stones potentially survive elsewhere along the track bed in their original locations.
The upper part of the eastern incline is in the form of a cutting for about 200m until just beyond Milk Bridge. This accommodation bridge has lost its deck and the upper parts of its abutments but remains a substantial structure retaining a long, stone revetted and parapetted approach ramp on the south side. Between Milk Bridge and the A6072 main road, the general course of the incline is followed by a footpath that continues on a gently descending route considered to be similar to the original track bed. C19 maps show this as first being within a cutting and then carried on an embankment, however C20 open casting and subsequent land reinstatement have altered the profile of the hillside to align it closer to the track bed of the incline. On the east side of the A6072, the land surface appears to be less altered and the embankment for the incline remains better defined.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this includes the full extent of the S&DR main line between Low West Thickley and Hackworth Industrial Park, divided into three sections by Brusselton Lane and the A6072 main road, these roads not being included in the monument. The stone walls forming the outer boundaries of the monument, in origin these being the S&DR’s boundary walls, are included in the monument. Excluded from the scheduled area are the houses and domestic curtilage in private ownership at Brusselton, the fences and walls that follow the boundaries being immediately outside the area of the monument. Other land around the houses at Brusselton is in local authority ownership, although much of this is in the day-to-day management of the local residents including established garden beds. This land is included in the scheduling.
To the east of this area, the route of the mainline passes into the built-up area of Shildon where inclusion within a scheduled area is considered less appropriate. The lower part of the western Brusselton Incline, to the west of Low West Thickley, has been significantly altered by C20 open casting, boundary walls also having been lost. Consequently, this part is also not included in the scheduling.
Further extensive remains of the original 1825 main line of the S&DR are included in separate scheduled monuments.
EXCLUSIONS: all C20 and later telegraph poles; fence, gate and signposts; interpretation panels and their supports; timber structures associated with the reservoir; litter bins and other street and garden furniture such as benches and washing lines are all excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath all these features is included. The tarmacked surfacing of the lane serving the houses at Brusselton is not excluded from the scheduling because it directly overlies the original track bed where there is potentially vulnerable archaeological evidence of track layouts and other related C19 features.
