Transport and outings

This part of the Bowburn LHS website will be added to as material is collected. Please see the bottom of the page for links to what is so far available.

A complete history of transport in Bowburn will have to include:

• a prehistoric “salt road”, from the coast, that may have run through Bowburn on its way between Kelloe and Croxdale (including today’s bridleways 35 & 36);

• Cade’s Road, a Roman road that is believed to have passed through Bowburn on its way between Old Durham and Cornforth;

• the Durham to Stockton turnpike road (now the A177) which had a toll gate at Crowtrees;

• the Clarence Railway, including especially the “Sherburn branch”, which terminated at Coxhoe and was used by several 19th century collieries in the area to ship coal to the south, on the Tees and later at West Hartlepool;

• the Crowtrees incline, which took coal north, towards Thornley and then east to Old Hartlepool;

• the Durham & Sunderland Railway, whose Whitwell & Quarrington branch took coal west and thence north to Sunderland;

• the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway, which became part of the first East Coast Main Line, including what was later called the “Leamside Line”, through Bowburn;

• the transport of coal from the 20th century Bowburn Colliery, and the earlier Tursdale Colliery, via the NER (and later also by road);

• public transport, especially by local bus companies, and “trip” buses;

• the growth of motor transport and, especially, the coming of the A1 motorway, and its impact.

It is hoped that detailed histories of all the above will in due course be written for this website.

When they are, they will appear as sub-pages, or attached as downloadable files. Please see links below.