My Grandfather was a Hewer at Harton and Westoe . He despised the royal family because the Bowes reference referred to the Bowes -Lyons family which was the Queens Mother. He hated the fact that the railway ran over a 100yard stretch of their land and charged the miners not the mine owners so many pence per loaded wagon every time they crossed their land, AND to rub salt into the wound they had the audacity to have their coat of arms painted on the side of every coal wagon. He hated them for taking money out of the pockets of the poor miners.
Simply excellent. This is how to produce a railway documentary - never mind wittering celebrity narrators and false jeopardy which ruin modern railway fly-on-the-wall programmes. Here, the pictures do the talking and the jeopardy is real. Just how much skill was needed to make things run safely? What was it like in the winter? Remarkable.
Nice memories. My dad and I volunteered at Bowes Railway in the early 1980s. We manned the crossing on Blackhams hill. We were there the day of the runaway, when six wagons broke free from the winch cable and raced down Blackhams hill on their own, crashing into the side of the kip near the next winding engine.
I was born in 1972 and grew up in this region. I remember being in my Dad’s car and we would drive past abandoned bits of this railway on the way to Newcastle. The railways would have probably closed by the time I was old enough to remember. I do remember seeing working men who looked like that, people who looked like someone’s grandparents. Hardworking, honest, salt of the earth people. I really enjoyed watching this video and now I know what those bits of the railway looked like when they were working. It looks like not a great deal changed from 1800s working practices except for the occasional electric motor and lamp. Thank you!
I was born in 1959 and when our family went to Weardale I was always fascinated by the old Beamish wagonway which had recently been abandoned and had little level crossings near the road down to what would later be Beamish museum.
At 14:12, the houses to the right are on a row called Ridgeway, Leam Lane Estate, NE10, and still stand today. Here you see the rear of the houses, with garages between the houses and the rail line. I lived just a few minutes walk from here, and I used to play on the roofs of those garages with my mates, but the railway had long since closed, as I am going back to the late 70's early 80's. But if the camera was facing in the opposite direction, there was, and still is the old engine shed, (now a bus museum I believe, or storage shed) just before the line crosses Lingey Lane at Wardley, and we used to play in there too, swinging from chains that used to hang from the roof up above. It was fascinating as a kid. I was born in 1972, not long before the railway closed, so it is also fascinating to see "the lines" as we called them, in use. My older siblings remembered the coal trucks, crossing the Leam Road on their way to Monkton coke works at Hebburn, where they made smokeless fuel or coke for the many open fires that were still in use in peoples homes. Central heating was rare 'on the Leam' until the housing providers embarked on a huge program in the mid to late 80's to install gas boilers and radiators in all the homes on Leam Lane Estate, a mammoth task, considering the size of the estate, which was the largest in Europe at the time, I believe! Memories of much happier simpler times for most people, I'll bet. But not without struggles, times were often tough, but we lived uncomplicated lives back then. Great video.
@@typhoon2827 Were you brought up in that area? Just wondering if anyone remembers the "mini jungle" and the huge hole in the ground behind the Wealcroft club? (they used to show kids movies on the big screen at the club on a Saturday morning back in the day) The huge hole used to be a stone or clay quarry I think. It used to fill up with water, and was a go to spot for fly tippers. It was filled in some years ago, the Wealcroft Club was demolished, and has houses stood on the site now, Scott's Court, and The Willows I believe. I was their postman for a few years, as well as the lower half of Ridgeway, the streets on the east side of Milford, Lingey Lane, and Montrose Drive estate. I had some nice customers on that route. I remember also as a kid, we used to take a wheelbarrow up "the lines", at the Leam Farm end, just down from where Bowes Museum is now. And we'd nick the coal that had fallen from the coal trucks over the years. There was tons of it as I recall. You'd be arrested for it these days, or somebody would snitch on you. What different times we live in today.
I was raised in teh area around the North east mines and spent many happy sunny summer days up on teh Leam and we used to walk across the Bowes line and one of my lingering memories is standing straddling the very large steel cable as it ran below me and then we used to move off and sit on teh gate as the two lines one full and one emprty crossed in front of use. Happy days
i lived near the cokeworks in hebburn and you could hear the wagons all day long. Them days there was always plenty to look at wagons and freight on the rail was busy and ships on the tyne.
Absolutely amazing, I love this. Judging by the camera quality, I take it this was film in the late 60's, their last few years before NCB got bankrupt.
The NCB was still around until the mid 80's at least. Cos my girlfriends dad at that time, who also turned out to be a convicted filthy NONCE, used to work for them. And he used to get dropped off in a big yellow crew wagon at the end of his shift, caked with dust and black as coal.
I once followed the path of the line from the Tanfield Railway at Marley Hill to the Moncton Cokeworks. Must have been the mid 80s. The Bowes Railway Museum was trying to preserve as much as possible. In other places there was still lots of old ropes and chains and sleepers. Think Kibblesworth Colliery still had some buildings standing. Wonder what is left today.
Came across this by chance. There were a lot of jokes flying about (NPI), regarding pigeon fanciers. But the look of pride and love that gentleman had for his bird was very moving. This is a moment in time that for better or for worse made Britain Great, and the decline and destruction of local communities, is a sad reflection on those who took advantage of it and the people.
Exciting documentary !! I think this is 5' or 5.5' gauge..I, a Yank, think I heard Ireland, or Scotland was wider than standard 4' 8.5" gauge..Yes ? No ? Maybe it WAS coal mines like this which caused the whole country to be set at wide gauge...Anyway, great great capture of a bygone Rwy operation...
The Republic of Ireland’s CIÉ and Northern Ireland’s NIR uses 5ft 3in gauge with the rest of the UK using 4ft 8 1/2in standard gauge. The Bowes Railway (like the national network) used standard gauge.
Hi, I'm a musician from County Durham. I'm creating a music video for a track I've written and wondered whether you'd allow me to use a few seconds from your brilliant video. I would credit you in the video's end credits. I should add that I make no money from the music. Thanks John.
