DB Specific Record

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***SWAAG_ID***	816
Date Entered	15/07/2014
Updated on	16/07/2014
Recorded by	Tim Laurie
Category	Mining Related
Record Type	Industrial Archaeology
Site Access	Public Access Land
Record Date	13/07/2014
Location	Stainmore Summit. The Track of the Railway from Barnard Castle to Tebay east of Stainmore Summit.
Civil Parish	Bowes
Brit. National Grid	NY 8837 1243
Altitude	1370ft above sea level.
Geology	Namurian strata south of line of the Stainmore Summit Fault, with cuttings for the track through The Little Limestone and with exposures of blanket peat. The Little Limestone is stratigraphically above the Main Limestone but, here on the downthrow side of the Stainmore Fault , it is 100ft below the Main Limestone which is exposed at the Roman Marching Camp on the line of the A66.
Record Name	Stainmore Summit. Images of the track of the disused railway from Barnard Castle to Tebay.
Record Description	The railway line across Stainmore was completed in 1861 and operated mainly as a freight line taking coke from the Durham Coalfield to the Iron Smelting Works at Barrow and Iron ore from Cumberland to the steelworks at Middlesbrough. the line closed in 1965 and operated for more than 100 years. The Stainmore Summit sign survives, but the track here has been razed and covered with spoil from the new A66 road. However, to the east of the Summit the track of the line is well preserved and is now, effectively, a fine nature reserve.
Dimensions	See photos
Additional Notes	The moorland scenery here is dramatic, especially on an overcast day with wind and occasional rain. But I do not find this gloomy or depressing. This is a real English Moor and Mountain Wilderness especially when experienced alone. Unless of nervous disposition. I left the track and walked towards the even more isolated Roman Signal Station at Roper Castle on Moudy Me (see later SWAAG Record). My walk returned across the southern slopes of Husk How Hill above Aygill Pool Gill, returning to the Railway Track on the line of the County Boundary Fence crossing Deadman's Gill and White Brow.
Image 1 ID	5568 Click image to enlarge
Image 1 Description	Stainmore Summit, the Sign. 1370 Feet above sea level.
Image 2 ID	5569 Click image to enlarge
Image 2 Description	View across the defile through which road and rail pass.
Image 3 ID	5570 Click image to enlarge
Image 3 Description	The track eastward from the summit
Image 4 ID	5571 Click image to enlarge
Image 4 Description	The track viewed westward to the summit sign.
Image 5 ID	5572 Click image to enlarge
Image 5 Description	View across the line with Belted Galloway Cattle and articulated trucks parked by the A66.
Image 6 ID	5573 Click image to enlarge
Image 6 Description	Slumped blanket peat at the side of the track.
Image 7 ID	5574 Click image to enlarge
Image 7 Description	Detail of the peat with massed remains of birch. Evidence for stunted birch woodland here during prehistory.
Image 8 ID	5575 Click image to enlarge
Image 8 Description	Detail of the stunted and wind calloused birch remains in peat.
Image 9 ID	5576 Click image to enlarge
Image 9 Description	Onward and downward towards Bowes.
Image 10 ID	5577 Click image to enlarge
Image 10 Description	Onward and downward towards Bowes.
Image 11 ID	5578 Click image to enlarge
Image 11 Description	Cutting through the Little Limestone for the track with Thyme
Image 12 ID	5579 Click image to enlarge
Image 12 Description	Cutting through the Little Limestone for the track with Thyme
Image 13 ID	5580 Click image to enlarge
Image 13 Description	Black spleenwort fern on the limestone by the track.
Image 14 ID	5581 Click image to enlarge
Image 14 Description	Two streams stained red by algae, with dense green swathes of Carex rostrata run beside the track
Image 15 ID	5582 Click image to enlarge
Image 15 Description	Occasional Sallows and Rowan the only trees.
Image 16 ID	5583 Click image to enlarge
Image 16 Description	Golden Plover on wall by the track.
Image 17 ID	5584 Click image to enlarge
Image 17 Description	View over the walled railway line to trucks parked by the A66 road, with fox earth, erratic boulder
Image 18 ID	5597 Click image to enlarge
Image 18 Description	Fox earth.
Image 19 ID	5586 Click image to enlarge
Image 19 Description	View north westward towards Roper castle, the Roman Signal Station, which is located beyond the high fells on the skyline.
Image 20 ID	5587 Click image to enlarge
Image 20 Description	Sheep fold by the track.
Image 21 ID	5588 Click image to enlarge
Image 21 Description	Stainmore. South of the railway.
Image 22 ID	5589 Click image to enlarge
Image 22 Description	A Moor familiar to Beowulf or Harold Bloodaxe.
Image 23 ID	5590 Click image to enlarge
Image 23 Description	Home to Grendel's Mother. 'The Fell and Fen her fastness was... The Moor her Lair....'
Image 24 ID	5591 Click image to enlarge
Image 24 Description	The way back follows this fence which is the County Boundary.
Image 25 ID	5592 Click image to enlarge
Image 25 Description	From Boundary Stone to
Image 26 ID	5594 Click image to enlarge
Image 26 Description	Boundary Stone..
Image 27 ID	5593 Click image to enlarge
Image 27 Description	Lousewort.
Image 28 ID	5595 Click image to enlarge
Image 28 Description	Drumlins, whose form mirrors long barrows, mark the line of the Stainmore Glacier which carried erratic boulders of Granite from Shap Fell and of boulders of volcanic ash from the Lake District to the Vale of York, to the North Sea as far south as Robin Hoods bay.
Image 29 ID	5596 Click image to enlarge
Image 29 Description	Back on the track. Linesman's Hut at the County Boundary, beside the ruins of a bridge carried the line over a stream.