Question for mark re Stanhope

[IanW]

Mark, you live down that neck of the woods right??

As you come over the moors from Edmundbyers there\'s a couple of old quarries on the left as you start to drop down into Stanhope.

Do you know if these are private property and the owner can keep anyone out or are are they governed by the \"right to roam\" bill and they are open access??

 

[mark]

yes and know I suppose! there\'s footpaths that criss cross them and the C2C cyscle path goes through the first one. been up there with the dog a loads of times with no bother,

the first one you get to, where the old park head station is has been virtually levelled now though, as someone bought the old railway station and all the quarry buildings. they\'ve renovated the station and flattened the rest

whatcha after.....as quarries go they\'re pretty l;ames, as they were mainly used to extract soft sandstone which was crushed for the steel works at consett. there\'s some much better places in weardale...depends what you after....

 

[IanW]

Well I\'m after rocky land that I can run my electric rc cars on.

Not fast stuff, but slow speed, large axle articulating, trucks with fully locked differentials and extra low gearing.

Something akin to the MOAB in America would be good.

I have been at that first quarry and the mounds of rock and stuff from the buildings next to his cafe was pretty good but the owner had a bit of a whinge.

I have found an old quarry next to St John\'s Chapel which I want to investigate.

If you know of any possible areas it would be appreciated.

If your stll at a loss this link should explain it all

Right click \"save as\"

http://www.rccrawlermedia.com/rcc-albums/album06/Arbuckle_Park_Feb_24th.wmv

 

[mark]

as you come into stanhope, go through the ford and head up and over the fell as though youre going to barnard castle

down the other side is bollihope, loads of old quarries right t the side of the road, big limestone flats, spoil heaps boulders...great place for limestone for the garden!

if you drive past the first quarry on your left, about 300 yards further on there\'s a track that heads over the river and up the fellside to a load of open cut ine workings. we go up ther regularly crystal hunting.. there\'s masses of spar up there and the land owners are really cool, long as your not poaching they don\'t care

there\'s also another couple set off the road on the right as well

on the way up the hill out of stanhope there\'s also a muckle big quarry on the left you can walk down into

 

[IanW]

Thanks for that Mark.

Do you know of any other decent quarries from your climbing (is that right that you mentioned that before) days??

 

[IanW]

Also, these tracks into the mine workings, do you think I\'d get bollocked for driving them.

I know some with have vehicular access, but how do you think the land owners would take it??

 

[mark]

pretty much all of them you can drive virtually into, the one that is over the river at bollihope you can\'t drive up to any more as there\'s some large boulder blocking the track... there was always loads of divvy\'s (jesmond jet set) trying to to go up and getting stuck in the cheap jap 4x4\'s, I used to get me tranny van up no bother!

a lot of the bollihope ones are blocked a short way off the road, but they\'re nearly all litterally at the road side anyway with loads of parking

you used to be able to drive into the old mine workings at nenthead but not been up there for a year or 2

not many quarries woth climbing in weardale (no good exposed faces) some of the best currently are at bollihope I\'d say, although, since the cement works closed the workings there are due to be opened up to \'leisure\' activities whatever that entails, and that is a huge quarry, but a a bit of a trek up to it unless they let you use the track the quarry wagons used.

there\'s a great place we used to climb at consett - hownsgill quarry, at the bootom of the dip from consett into castleside, turn left there and go under the old viaduct, the quarry itself is now densly wooded but there\'s some big caves under the quarry faces

I\'ll have a think and see what else I can suggest. If its rough ground type of thing them there is any number old lead mines out here that might fit the bill

 

[mark]

just watched the vid (haven\'t heard that track in years!)

bollihope will be perfect. as you get down into bollihope, there\'s a hairpin bend at the far end, if you go past that you\'ve gone too far, but just before the hairpin, there\'s a dried up stream bed that runs into the main river and under the road and out the other side, basically boulder strewn of that right sort of size I guess, the stream bed runs up hill for about half a mile before you\'ll see any water an old mine level collapsed a couple of years back so the stream dissappears underground.

If take the track, over the rive and up to old workings there\'s loads of gullies that were cut that run uphill, and I guess to an RC truck, are like nevada in minature!, see If I can find a pic or 2..

 

[peter.m]

Good little video Mark. is that AC/DC?

 

[mark]

certainly is... been digging out some old stuff ever since.. being serenaded to sleep by \"dirty deeds done dirt cheap\" right no!