Bridge over former quarry railway incline, Close Lea

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 3 Jan 2015

A well-made masonry bridge (c.1878) carries the lane leading from Heddon Banks to the east side of Close House estate over the railway incline close to the quarry at Close Lea Image It has an arched span of 30 feet which would have allowed for two parallel standard gauge tracks and associated sidings. The lines levelled out just north of the bridge, terminating near the working face of the quarry, about 150 yards from the road bridge. The deep cutting of the railway now carries a boggy stream and is heavily wooded. A large water-pipe runs parallel with the parapet on the north side of the bridge Image The route of this water supply pipeline seems to have been altered from its previous course when the quarry was opened. An engine house and 100 foot chimney stood on the steep slope about 25 yards north of the bridge, adjacent to the west side of the quarry, but there is little to see there today. The chimney was demolished in 1973. At the bottom of the incline, on flat land east of Close House mansion, the line curved eastwards on a line parallel to and just north of the Scotswood, Newburn & Wylam Railway (SN&W; opened 1876), close to the line of the former Wylam Waggonway, and was worked from the Heddon Colliery yard. Further east, the colliery railway connected to the mineral railway on the old waggonway route leading to Lemington staiths, and the North East Railway who operated the SN&W. Alan Clothier (Beyond the Blaydon Races, 2014, p.229) was very impressed by the bridge: "... the substantial masonry bridge constructed to carry the earlier private road and bridleway to the east side entrance of the Close House estate over the quarry railway remains an enduring testimony to the quality work of the stone masons who built it. In appearance it seems quite out of character with the nature of the country lane which crosses it. Has it, we wonder, been listed?" http://heddonhistory.weebly.com/blog/heddon-quarries

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0