Lanchester Valley Railway Path

History

The Lanchester Valley Railway Path follows the trackbed of the Lanchester Valley branch of the North Eastern Railway, which ran between Durham and Consett. Durham County Council says it was built to carry iron ore to Consett steelworks and coal from Langley Park; the North Eastern Railway Association says the company opened it from Relly Mill Junction, south of Durham, in September 1862, as traffic from the Derwent Iron Company at Consett grew. Passenger trains stopped in 1939 and the line closed to all traffic in 1965.

The council's leaflet says a wooden viaduct near Hurbuck Cottages was filled with colliery waste in 1915 and is still buried beneath the path, and that a sharp right-angle bend marks where the line was lost to opencast mining and farming. The council publishes the path as a 12-mile Railway Path from Broompark picnic site, near Durham, to Lydgetts Junction at Consett, for walkers, cyclists, horse riders and wheelchair users, and says it manages its railway paths through its Sites and Rangers team. At Lydgetts Junction it meets the Waskerley Way and Derwent Valley railway paths, and at Broompark the Brandon to Bishop Auckland and Deerness Valley railway paths.