Lanchester to Ebchester - Farm shops, steel and stark plantations

We don't often get to travel to the far north for our Chester walks, so it was with no small sense of excitement that we boarded the train at King's Cross station, destination Durham, a healthy three hours train ride from London on the East Coast line.  This was our second walk in County Durham, the first one being Chester-le-Street back in September 2011.

County Durham has to be one of Britain's most undiscovered counties, as it tends to be ignored in favour of the more dramatically scenic areas of Northumberland and the North Yorkshire moors.  The great thing about this series of Chester walks is that it brings us to undiscovered areas and places we would normally by-pass which have a beauty and merit all of their own.

Lodgings and victuals

This was another 'double whammy' Chester walk, as we managed to get two Chesters for the price of one.  We'd initially drawn Ebchester using our random selection app, but when we realised that we could walk there from Lanchester, we decided to stay overnight in that larger town, as it had more accommodation options.

Lanchester Village Street Map

Lanchester is a nice enough place and we were really lucky to stay in The Old Post Office, a newly-opened B&B on Lanchester's Front Street.  It's funny how the name for the central street of a town has regional variations in England - it took me a while to get used to the term High Street for what we call (in Ireland) Main Street.  Front Street seems to be the North-East equivalent and suggests a place along a roadside, where carriages would stop on their long journey to Edinburgh.

Lanchester Front Street

We had dinner at Crinnion's bar and restaurant, next door to the B&B and caught up on our respective lives, as we always do on these weekend walks!

Lanchester to Knitsley Farm Shop (2.9 miles/4.7 kilometres)

This was a really easy walk, in the sense that we were able to follow an old railway path the entire way.  Whilst it's sad, in many ways, that many of England's railways have fallen out of use, particularly in former industrial areas like the Lanchester and Derwent Valleys, it's good that they have been transformed into cycling routes, which anyone can access if they want to get a break from the nearby cities of Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland.

Lanchester Valley railway path

Lanchester was a stop on the Durham to Consett branch line, which closed in the 1960's. The path felt quite remote and windswept as we made our way out of Lanchester village and along the western ridge of the Lanchester valley.  This part of County Durham has rich farmland and the great industrial cities of the North-East felt very far away, although they're only twenty or so miles distant.

View over Lanchester Valley

At Hurbuck Farm we dipped down into the valley and met our first paved roadway, the Humberhill Lane. From there, it was a short walk to Knitsley Farm shop, a really lovely place to buy some fresh farm produce or have a bit of lunch.

Hurbuck Farm

Cows and calves in West Knitsley Grange

Knitsley Farm shop and cafe

Knitsley Farm Shop to Consett (3.5 miles/5.6 kilometres)

From the farm shop, we followed the Lanchester Valley Railway path to the outskirts of Consett. Meeting a junction of cycle paths and footpaths, we ended up taking the wrong one - having been distracted by a bright red disused railway carriage, we missed the more direct path into Consett and were seduced by the more prominent Consett and Sunderland Railway path, which took us slightly off course, as it tried to convince us to walk all the way to Sunderland!

Red train near Consett

The Consett and Sunderland Railway path follows yet another former railway line, the Stanhope and Tyne Railway. It's 26 miles from Consett to Sunderland, so doable in two days, if you're interested in walking this route.  This path is part of the much longer Sea to Sea cycle path, one of Britain's most popular cycling routes, which runs from Whitehaven in Cumbria and finishes 140 miles later in Sunderland.  It's great to get so much off-road cycling/walking and it's much less dangerous walking or cycling on these former railway lines than on country lanes.

The Consett and Sunderland railway path

One of the main benefits of our detour, was that we saw an amazing public art installation called Terris Novalis by the Liverpudlian sculptor, Tony Cragg.  Consett had a very proud tradition as one of Britain's main centres for high-quality iron and steel production.  Even until the late 1970's, the Consett steelworks was profitable and provided hundreds of jobs locally but, in what seemed to be an ideological attack on an area famed for industrial action and strikes, Margaret Thatcher's government closed the Consett steelworks in 1980, making more than 3,000 people unemployed.

Terris Novalis sculpture detail

Terris Novalis sculpture by Tony Cragg

Consett has a quietly demure feeling about it these days and it's hard to get a sense of what has happened in those intervening years.  There's very little left of its former industrial heritage, apart from public works of art. The landscape is now dominated by the hospital building at Shotley Bridge rather than the Steelworks, an apt symbol of 21st-century Britain, in many ways!  We found an interesting blog post about the Terris Novalis sculpture - well worth a read.

Consett had a long history of steel-making

Public seating where the steelworks used to be

Consett

Consett to Ebchester (2.3 miles/3.7 kilometres)

We'd originally intended to finish our walk at Ebchester, but things were going so swimmingly on the relatively easy railway paths (no being chased by cows or stung to death by nettles) that we made a decision, quite early on in the day to push ahead as far as time would permit us to go, considering it would be a bus journey back to civilisation and the 7pm train from Newcastle to London!

Derwent walk leaving Consett

It was a nice walk from Consett to Ebchester and fairly busy with cyclists, dog-walkers and even a couple of people carrying their shopping on mobility scooters!  Whilst it was tempting to stick to the railway path along the ridge of the Derwent valley, we felt it would only be right to descend into the valley and visit Ebchester, our second 'chester' of the day!

Ebchester village

Known as Vindomora in Roman times, Ebchester was founded as a Roman fort on Dere Street, the main Roman road from York to the north.  I'd say it was a pretty miserable outpost, back in the day, but nowadays it's a very pretty little village that looked peaceful in the late afternoon sunshine.  We debated the origin of the suffix vin- related to wine (BAM's theory) or wind (my theory) - actually it's more likely to be a word of Celtic origin meaning white, like the modern Irish modern bán.

St Ebba's Church in Ebchester

The useful map in this photograph shows Binchester as well, a place we haven't yet visited, but one which is firmly on our list.

Durham in Roman times

Ebchester to Lintzford (3.5 miles/5.7 kilometres)

From Ebchester we followed Shaw Lane and then a public footpath out of the village and back up to the ridge and the railway path.  From there on in, it was a pretty dreamy walk, feeling miles away from anywhere, as we skirted along the Derwent valley with the villages of Hamsterley and Hamsterley Mill barely impinging on our rural idyll!

The Derwent Valley

The only distraction along the way was the red deadnettle which I spotted and identified using my flower app, as I'm trying to learn the names of British wild flowers.  It's called a dead nettle because it doesn't sting.

The red deadnettle

We also walked through the curiously-named Make-me-Rich plantation.  I couldn't help but wonder, as we passed the sternly watchful trees, whether or not someone did get rich from the plantation?

Stern trees in the Make-me-Rich plantation

With a close eye on the time, we decided to end our walk at a pretty little roadside village called Lintzford, where we caught the 45 bus on to Newcastle and the long journey home.

The River Derwent at Lintzford

Access for wheelchair users:

Because this walk mostly followed disused railway lines, I could recommend any part of this walk for wheelchair users. The only bit that wouldn't be accessible is the footpath from the railway path to Lintzford, so you might want to consider coming off the railway path at one of the villages, or continuing to Rowlands Gill

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me, please feel free to reuse, under the Creative Commons license:

- Attribution (especially to this blog post)
- Share alike

- Non-commercial

Rochester, Northumberland - Reivers, New Year and Astrotourism

Rochester, Northumberland is the second 'Rochester' we've visited during our series of Chester walks, the other being Rochester in Kent, on the River Medway.  It was also our third visit to the North East of England, as we've previously been to Chesterwood and Rudchester - both of which are alongside Hadrian's wall. 

Lodgings and victuals

Rochester in Northumberland was pretty much the last outpost for the Romans in England and, being so far away from London, we found it impossible to do this trip in a single weekend. 

So, this walk was quite special, in the sense that we combined it with our New Year celebrations and stayed three nights in a gorgeous little cottage called Petty Knowes, which is owned by Gordon and Joanne Moore, who also own the village shop in Otterburn, The Border Reiver.  I'd heard about Border Reivers before this walk - the 15th and 16th century 'highwaymen' who owed no allegiance to either the English or Scottish crowns and terrorised both sides of the border.  

Petty Knowes farmhouse and cottage in Rochester

We'd highly recommend staying with Gordon and Joanne - not only are they incredibly welcoming, but theirs is a very interesting story, having ditched highly-paid jobs and city lives, they moved to the rural Northumberland around twelve years ago and have really made a success of their businesses.  Gordon is somewhat of a Roman history enthusiast and Joanne gave us a lot of useful information about access to the surrounding countryside. 

BAM and BRH

In a departure from tradition and because it was New Year, we had a special guest on our Chester walk this time - not just myself and BAM (Best Aussie Mate), but also BRH (Best Russian Husband), my long-suffering and patient partner who has closely followed our previous walks (online/virtually) and been incredibly supportive of our challenge to visit all of the Chesters. 

Petty Knowes cottage to Stewartshiels Plantation (1.4 miles/2.3 kilometres)

Joanne told us about the origin of the name 'Petty Knowes' which is connected to the small mounds/knolls or knowes near the cottage, which are believed to cover a Roman graveyard.  The cottage is situated very close to the remains of Dere Street, the road that led from York to the Antonine Wall near (what is now) Edinburgh. 

Northumberland countryside

Rochester was known as Bremenium in Roman times, a name connected to the local stream.  As we made our way along the small lane leading to Hillock, we passed through what would have been the original fort, but is now a farmyard, still visible in the landscape.  What's interesting is that many of the local buildings, including the cottage we stayed in, most likely contain stone that was originally part of the Roman fort.  It's amazing to see how the fort has been 'recycled' into the modern buildings. 

Signpost for Bremenium

Before reaching Hillock, there is a sign that points out a path running uphill, towards the distant trees of Stewartshiels Plantation.  This whole area is part of the Northumberland National Park, one of England's least populated areas and a place that very few people have been lucky enough to visit.  The Park was just recently awarded 'Dark Sky' status and is set to becoming Britain's leading 'hotspot' for astrotourism.  Unfortunately, being quite stormy around New Year, it was bitterly cold outside and the sky was too cloudy for us to engage in any nocturnal star-gazing!

BAM and BRH walking towards the plantation

Stewartshiels Plantation to Dudless Road (2 miles/3.2 kilometres)

We're not quite sure about the exact distance we covered in Stewartshiels plantation.  It's difficult to orientate yourself in a forest and we somehow ended up wandering around a bit and coming out onto the Dudless Road, about half a mile from where we'd intended to be! 

It was at the plantation that we saw our first signs of military activity, due to the proximity of the Otterburn Training Area, the UK's largest firing range and one of Europe's most important military training areas.  I still find it fascinating that so many of the 'chesters', which were identified as strategic areas by the Roman military are still somehow connected to the military in the 21st century. 

It's always a bit nerve-racking walking in or near MOD (Ministry of Defence) property, but it's something we've had to get used to, since our first 'chester' walk (Ancaster) in 2010.  Luckily, being New Year, there weren't any major training activities when we were there, so no red warning flags!

Danger: Military training zone!

Road through the plantation

I've rarely been to a place that is as deathly silent as Stewartshiels plantation - it felt as though we'd fallen into a post-apocalyptic novel and the views along the long plantation roads were beautiful and spooky in equal measure!  Eventually we stumbled out onto a main road again, between Stewartshiels and Tofthouse farms.

Road to Stewartshiels Farm

Dudless Road to Hopehead (2.5 miles/4.1 kilometres)

We've seen a lot on these Chester trips and walked in all kinds of strange places, but I think this was our first time to walk on a runway.  To be honest, we didn't initially realise it was a runway - it merely looked like a rather conveniently smooth short-cut to where we wanted to go.  It was only after consulting the map halfway along that we realised we were standing in the middle of an airstrip!

Walking on the airstrip

From the airstrip we walked uphill along a very empty road that runs along the edge of the Otterburn Training area.  The air was incredibly fresh and chill along the ridge and we had spectacular views of the Redesdale valley in the late afternoon winter light. Apart from grazing sheep and mysterious military-type buildings, this part of the walk was pretty uneventful, until we reached the junction at Hopehead, where we were able to turn downhill, towards Otterburn and the bottom of the valley. 

Rainbow

Hopehead to Hopefoot (1.6 miles/2.5 kilometres)

The Hopefoot road leading downhill came to a 'blind summit' which, I realise must have something to do with visibility for drivers but set us off on a mental tangent trying to imagine a summit for all of the world's most influential blind people, past and present!  The road passes Otterburn camp and leads all the way to a small farmstead at the bottom of the hill, where we then took a public footpath towards the river (Otter Burn). 

Lonely road alongside the Otterburn Training Area

Sign post for Otterburn

BRH walking towards the 'blind summit'

Hopefoot to Otterburn (1.4 miles/2.25 kilometres)

Apparently there are still otters in the Otter Burn, but we didn't see any, as we walked along the riverside footpath. The light began to fade, as we made our way to Otterburn village.  Otterburn is a quiet little village, somewhat dominated by the road to Scotland and the frequent traffic passing through.  Whilst Gordon and Joanne have managed to make the local shop work, it's clear that some of the other local businesses haven't fared so well and Otterburn is in danger of becoming just another commuter town or retirement village, without a real sense of community or an identity of its own.  It's a shame really, as there's something quite special about this remotest corner of England. 

Hopefoot

Otterburn Tower - now a hotel

Access for wheelchair users:

Actually, most of this route is accessible, except the first part which crosses fields to the Stewartshiels plantation.  The roads around the military area are good and were relatively traffic-free when we were there, although it was during the New Year holiday.  An alternative route, which would be wholly accessibly would be to follow the Yatesfield Road from Bennettsfield.  The A68 is much too busy and we wouldn't advise using any part of this road in a wheelchair, as it's dangerous.  The roads around Otterburn seem to be fairly accessible.  

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

Attribution (especially to this blog post)
Share-alike
Non-commercial