Category: Durham
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Hawthorn Hive
This morning I was surprised that The Guardian’s Country Diary was about Chourdon Point on the Durham coast. Surprised that I just happened to have planned a run along the coastal path passing by this point. After I met up with someone in nearby Dalton. Phil Gates, the writer of the piece, describes “the soporific…
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Causey Arch
Prior to the late 17th-century, transportation of materials across the country was slow and difficult. Either by horse drawn carts or teams of ponies. More forward thinking industrialists were developing wagon-ways, horse-drawn first with wooden rails and rollers, then with flanged iron wheels. In the 1720s, when coal-owners were considering exploiting the coal fields below…
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Exercising
Day 26 of the Lockdown. Or is it? Life has settled into a routine. Get up, exercise, eat, doze, an odd job or two around the house, eat again, then start thinking about tomorrow’s posting. This crisis has made me realise just how fortunate I am in having easy access to woods and open land.…
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A weir on the Wear
A few hours to kill in Durham and wanting a break from the shops and touristy things headed down to the River Banks for a stroll along the Wear. On the far side were two corn mills belonging to the Bishop of Durham, known as the Jesus and Lead Mills. By the end of the…
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Blossom Pond, Hetton Lyons Country Park
Trying to navigate my way around Hetton Lyons Country Park using the 1922 6″ to the mile Ordnance Survey map. A lot has changed. The old surface workings of the Hetton Colliery. The heart of the colliery was to the south of the Durham, Elvet & Murton Branch railway, now a walkway/cycle path. An industrial…
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Durham Cathedral
A few hours to kill in a city and where better than Durham. Did the cathedral tour but no cameras allowed inside and plenty of church police to enforce the rules. Sorry, “guides”, enthusiastic but over friendly for my liking. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Sea Stack, Chemical Beach, Seaham
A surprisingly unnamed magnesian limestone sea stack on the Durham coast. The beach on which it sits, south of Seaham, is named after the Seaham Chemical Works which occupied the immediate cliff top for a short time. It was established in the 1860s, by the 1890s it had gone. But Chemical Beach continued to be…
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Old Durham Gardens
I always like to have a map with me on my explorings. A map can tell you so much about the locality. This evening however I had an hour or so to kill in Durham so I just wandered around and by chance came across this little gem. These gardens date from the 17th century and, although…