The River Wear, one of the three great water courses of North-east England, flows from its source in the wildest moorlands of the Pennines to meet the North Sea at Sunderland. The bleakness of its upper reaches, its geology and industrial history provided a lifetime’s material to the poet W H Auden. A visitor to this little-known, but very beautiful valley can share much of what inspired some of Auden’s greatest poetry.
The Weardale Railway
Weardale Railway was in use from the 1850s until 1992. Originally, it carried minerals and passengers between Bishop Auckland and Wearhead, though latterly, it served a now redundant cement works at Eastgate. Steam and diesel trains run throughout the year, between Wolsingham and Stanhope, operated by volunteers from the Weardale Railway Trust. Further extensions of the service, along the remaining track from Bishop Auckland to Eastgate are planned for the future. The 5-mile journey is leisurely and runs from rural, wooded country to where the wilder scenery of the Pennine moors begins to assert itself.
