Down the Tanfield Way to the Tyne

In part preparation for our tercentenary, Angela, Ian & I accompanied Jane Hackworth-Young from the S&DR bicentenary team & George Smith on a walk down the Tanfield Way from Marley Hill to Tyne at Redheugh.

1/4 mile north of Sunniside station, the kips are still in place at Pennyfine Road

Coal cells are also still present alongside the kips

Looking back up the self acting incline after another quarter mile,
with an accommodation bridge still in place 57 years since line closure

Sunniside History Group have placed interpretation boards below Fugar Bar,
on & around the site of Watergate Colliery & the bell pits in the area

Watergate was a post WWI colliery which lasted until 1964. Looking towards Lobley Hill top, this is possibly a sidings area.

Looking up Lobley Hill self acting incline, a quarter mile down

Looking down past the meetings, which were further on

The A1 Western Bypass crosses & covers the route after another quarter mile or so.   On the other side of the A1,  in the Teams area, the Tanfield Way is further obliterated by new housing, roads & industrial buildings.

George, Jane & Bouncer walking south on a short section of the Tanfield Way adjacent to the site of Redheugh gasworks

On the left is the 1835 Newcastle & Carlisle Railway route, with the Tanfield Way covered by a bus link coming in from the right.
The N&CR terminated at a station under the Redheugh Bridge in Gateshead, on the route of the Tanfield Waggonway

Bits of Tanfield staiths in Tyne mud on Redheugh quayside
(the later larger NER Dunston staiths are behind the camera)

This steep incline runs adjacent to the 1840s Brandling Junction Railway link 
from the Tanfield route up to to their South Shields & Sunderland routes
(via what became the back of the NER Gateshead shed & locomotive works)