Our headline walk of 2026. 13 miles - a full Summer Saturday hiking the Stanhope & Tyne Railway to Consett 💚 Viaducts, desolate stations, chapels and views to die for - on one of the best preserved railways in the country. If you fancy a challenge, the link is below!

This little chapel on Milbank Terrace, Station Town disguises its true origins well. This was not the community's first Primitive Methodist Chapel, but a turn of the century phoenix rising from the original which had burnt down to a cinder.

Good morning. I'm delighted to let you know tickets for our biggest EVER walk along the incredible Stanhope & Tyne Railway is now on sale 🚂 We'll be traversing the fells across early 19th century inclines, railway stations and viaducts in August. 13 spaces. Link below!

Morning! Our 2nd reservoir added alongside Blyth to the site and I think the 5th or 6th water infrastructure site added. Hurworth Burn, with an old railway line slicing it in 2, is well worth a visit for bird watchers etc. There's an old pillbox here too. Link below

Good evening... Further details are now available for our Stanhope & Tyne Deep Dive on the site. It'll be 22nd August, and we'll be putting a bus on from Consett which is part of the cost along with the guide book. I can't WAIT for this - tickets on sale Friday. Link below!

A new history on the Patreon today around the Hurworth Burn Reservoir. Another unspoken legacy of Durham’s industry is the huge growth of utility infrastructure - such reservoirs like this fuelled the docks & shipyards which couldn’t rely on the wells of yesteryear. Link below!

Just a heads up that our Patreon Book Club title going into July is Andrew Ziminski's "Church Going"! I've gotten 2/3 the way through this week, and I adore the non-academic viewpoint Andrew provides. It's really from the coal face - a practioner's guide to the ancient church.

This week, our biggest ever walk will be available to book… THE STANHOPE & TYNE! One for the hardcore history walking nuts - a testing hike along the fells on what’s arguably the best preserved early 19th century railway in the world, between Stanhope & Consett. Stay tuned 🎉

Good afternoon! This is the last station we cover on the Castle Eden line. Thorpe Thewles is certainly the legacy success story, while Hurworth Burn is very much a poignant opposite.

Morning. To start the week I've added updated more yards on the Shipbuilding Archive. The Reay's and Richardson's have both been accounted for as building in North Hylton. Reay apprenticed George Bartram before he opened a yard next door as seen below. Link below

I am always so insanely grateful to those who come on the walks - not just for volunteering their time but for making them such a great learning experience for myself too. One of my favourites yet all thanks to those who joined - an absolute blast in beautiful weather!

Our last addition of the week to the site is the quite extraordinary Church of St Thomas Becket - the last survivor of a medieval sunken village which is fast decaying. I fear how this will look in 20 years. Sadly it's on private land, so not possible to visit without a drone.

Just doing some research on the Wansbeck... As you do on a Thursday night. Does anyone know why there's so many saintly tributes on the riverbank? St Catherine, St Clement's (which corrupted into Climbing Tree) & St Margaret all noted.

A little over a mile to the north of Thorpe Thewles, hidden in private farmland off the old Stockton to Durham road, stand the roofless walls of one of the most important medieval church ruins this side of Durham.

Morning. If you're heading out, a quick reminder our Route Builder is available to all for free on our website. Totally custom built for our region to walk/cycle and discover sites of historic interest through our database and Historic England. Let me know what you find!

Benwell had the first lightbulb factory in the world too! x.com/neheritageli...

A Thorpe Thewles double header added to the website today. Both the railway station and the lovely Church of St James have been added with a deeper look on their histories and where they fit within their landscape. Link below

I've popped onto the Patreon a history of Thorpe Thewles Railway Station - the most complete on this line. It's accomodated the gentry, royalty, and even top Nazi brass. Nowadays, it's a very pleasant woodland walk with cafe and kids play area. Link below.

I've spent this morning tracing through some of the Northumberland villages beginning with B to find some of sports grounds. Alas - 2 tennis courts at Buckton & Bywell have been added alongside the lost cricket ground at Bywell which disappeared by the 1910s. Link below.

The Church of St James at Thorpe Thewles is a lovely Grade II listed church on the north side of Wynyard Road, and is the third place of Christian worship to serve the ancient parish of Grindon in about 900 years.

Morning! No rest for the wicked - the Vane Arms is now on the site as its own entry fleshing about the bottom of South East County Durham. This beautiful old inn still features the innards of the old village manor house. Link below - have a great bank holiday!

An actual historic manor house or a bit of an Edwardian con? Well... it's both! I've popped up a potted history of The Vane Arms at Thorpe Thewles - a beautiful country pub with roots of a medieval manorial complex. Read for free below.

Good morning! If you’re coming to our Bothal walk next week, you should receive an email in your inbox right about now for full information regarding it. Luckily it’s looking like perfect weather for it. We have a couple spots left. If you fancy is, I’ll leave the link below.

From Stockton, the next village up the Castle Eden railway is Thorpe Thewles. This is a village sitting on a low ridge towards Durham. A quiet little place with a broad green, a church and two pubs facing each other across the road.

Newcastle has never been short of outsiders willing to pass judgement on its people. From bewildered antiquaries to a Russian novelist, visitors across four centuries have arrived with opinions and left quietly converted. A piece by Sue Hope on perspectives of Tyneside - link below!

A brand new post on the Patreon today as a free exclusive. This one's on the absolutely stunning Sparks' Daylight Bakery - one of the finest Art Deco buildings in the whole region. One of the many baking firms who we've sadly lost in the past 40 years. Link below.

Good morning! I've added what I think is our first Plymouth Brethren chapel to the site - the Hebron Hall at Stockton's Newtown. It's also the first Brethren church I've come across up here that is still used by its original congregation and still worshipped in. Link below

Hello everyone! On the corner of Vicarage St and Bishopton Rd in Stockton's Newtown, there's a small brick-fronted chapel that's acted as the pillar of the junction since the turn of the 20th c. This is a fantastic survival of a lesser known congregation still operating.

Good morning. Back at it today! Coming to the closing ends of this Wearside phase of the Shipbuilding Archive. I've added the High Ford yard today, home to the Reay & Naizby yard - later the Wigham repair slipway seen below in the 1880s or 1890s. Certain in use from the 1860s.

@carltonreid.com as per DM!

Good morning!

We are often told our ancient churches were filled with colour and it’s always been difficult to imagine. My word, St Barbara at Kutna Hora has propelled me straight into its glory. It’s not subtle - the colour and craft is delivered to you on a plate

Good morning. A different type of hike today, as I’m getting the railjet out to Kolin! I am also delighted to find out the earliest locomotives built for Moravia & Bohemia were… by Stephenson at Forth Banks!

I fear us Anglicans are missing out on some sexy art nouveau

John Wesley finds a familiar scene in Newcastle in 1742. If he thought that was bad, he should have been there for the most recent Sunderland game. #nufc (quote from an excellent essay by Sue Hope in the newsletter of the estimable North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social)

It's time to start a brand new series at the other end of the region! I've wanted to come back down here for a while, having last done a trek around these parts a couple years ago from Billingham to Middlesbrough.

Good morning! I have added St Thomas' School to the site - that old and overgrown building tucked in a nook off John Dobson Street. The site once made much more sense being directly in the eyeline of the church overlooking the valley. Link below

Good evening. We leave this week, and this series, with a building that ages in full public view with little to no regard of its future. To be fair, I barely even notice it these days. This is the former St Thomas' School on Vine Lane.

Two massive additions to the site this morning. They're both unrecognisable today an all. The 17th century fort fully cleared by the 19th century beside the Pandon Dene, which was infilled leading to New Bridge Street Railway Station. This was entirely gone in the 60s/70s.

Another free Patreon exclusive tonight - New Bridge Street Railway Station. The southern terminus of the Blyth & Tyne and the home of the Metro's grandad - the Tyneside Electrics. It was superseded by Manors North in the late 1900s. Link below for full piece

Today's post is a lil Patreon exclusive as it's a bit too much rambling for here... Shieldfield Fort - the now lost Civil War defence which defended Newcastle for some 9 months in the mid 17th century. A bastion which has never been treated to full excavation! Link below

Good morning! I've added St Dominic's Church (and adjoining priory) to the site as their own records, featuring a history of the Dominicans and the wider built landscape to boot. Link below!

Hello. Just a warning that there’s only 3 tickets left for this months walk from Morpeth to Ashington - I’m calling it the Bothal Pilgrimage! It’s at the end of the month, and covers the trail I did last weekend. Fancy something different? Come along! Link below

Quick one. How on earth are people figuring out who to vote for tomorrow when there is barely any effort by most parties to share what they actually stand for locally? Stop making me rely on national politics/geopolitics - who is going to tell me about Social Care & ASB?

Evening. I've wanted to cover St Dominic's for aaaaages - this mysterious monolith sat quite randomly on New Bridge Street. Its story goes back further than I realised - the two were never put together in my head.

I've raised its plight with both of the interim property directors, and the previous Director of Place. Have you seen the Hyhubs / Hoults Yard style transformation of the Haylofts? Keep the basic shape of the building, but insert a load of small offices? Something like that? Just needs Kim £££££

Our Gibson Street Baths piece is now up on the site. Just before it was built the left hand side was a yard used by an undertakeer and mason, presumably providing the hearse and the gravestone. Man found an infinite money glitch! Link below

Possibly the saddest listed building in Newcastle, sat in limbo until its eventual demise given there's nothing to repurpose it into. 😔 I've written up a piece on the Gibson Street Baths - free to read on Patreon as it's a bit too long for over here. Link below

The Mitre is one of those long lost pubs which quite literally bares no trace apart from the collective memories of the people who live round here. A pretty standard two storey Victorian corner pub fully rendered.