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TheDerwent Valley Railway was a branch railway inCounty Durham,England. Built by theNorth Eastern Railway, it ran fromSwalwell (now inTyne and Wear) toBlackhill via five intermediate stations, and onwards toConsett.
In 1842, theDerwent Iron Company (DIC) had taken over the southern part of the formerStanhope and Tyne Railway. After theWest Durham Railway constructed a line toCrook, theStockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) began construction of theWeardale Extension Railway to Crook, which opened on 8 November 1843, from a junction on its leasedWeardale Railway.[1] As a result, the DIC proposed an extension from Crook to the foot of the Meeting Slacks incline, which latter becameWaskerley, to provide a southern shipping route for theirlime andiron products. Having obtained an extension of their right of way from theBishop of Durham, the DIC submitted the plans to the S&DR, who agreed to the extension as long as the DIC leased the entire southern section of the former S&TR to them. The Stanhope to Carrhouse section passed into the possession of the S&DR on 1 January 1845, with the completed 10-mile (16 km) Weardale Extension Railway from theWear Valley Junction to Waskerley opening on 16 May 1845.[1]
After the opening of the Weardale Extension Railway and the completion ofHownes Gill Viaduct underThomas Bouch in 1858,[2][3] the DIC had pressed the newly formed NER to linkConsett with theRiver Tyne viaGateshead.[4]
Constructed as an extension of the existingLanchester Valley Railway, theLanchester Railway Extension as it was originally known was opened in 1867 after three years’ building work. Four viaducts were constructed and a deep, 800-metre (870 yd) long cutting was dug near Rowlands Gill. The Nine Arches Viaduct was one of the major engineering feats of the railway. It is 500 ft (150 m) long and was built because theEarl of Strathmore would not allow the railway to pass through theGibside Estate.[5]
At its peak in 1914 the railway was carrying over half a million passengers a year with a regular goods traffic of timber, bricks and coal to Newcastle and iron ore to Consett.[6]
The railway is notable for an unsolved murder that occurred atLintz Green railway station. The stationmaster, George Wilson,[7] met his death on the night of 7 October 1911. No satisfactory explanation was ever forthcoming despite one of the most intensive murder investigations ever carried out in the North East of England.[8]
High Westwood Station was closed in 1942 while the remaining stations survived into the 1950s. The line finally closed on 11 November 1963.[6]
The railway is commemorated in the Geordie folk song about an ill-fated train journey from Rowlands Gill,Wor Nanny's a mazer.[5]
Durham County Council have since developed the route into a multi-user path andGateshead Council into the Derwent Walk country park,[9] part of theSustrans network of national foot andcycle paths. The viaducts and bridges were repaired and the entire trackbed, with the exception of a small section through Rowlands Gill where the cutting was infilled, has now become a section of theSea to Sea Cycle Route.[10]
In June 2020,MP forNorth West Durham,Richard Holden, sponsored a bid to theIdeas Fund of theDepartment for Transport'sRestoring Your Railway Fund, hoping to access up to £50,000 to cover the cost of an initial study into the feasibility of restoring a rail link[11] between Consett and Blaydon.[12] In November 2020 it was announced that the requested funds would be provided for such a study into reinstating a rail service between Consett andNewcastle,[13][14] although it was unclear whether this would focus entirely on the former Derwent Valley Railway or also include the formerline via Birtley.
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