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River Gaunless
The Gaunless is a tributary river of the Wear in County Durham, England. Its name is old norse, meaning useless.A Potted History of West Auckland - Martin Connolly The Gaunless Viaduct, built in 1825, was the tallest viaduct on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway. Formed just south of the village of Copley, by the confluence of Arn Gill (to the south, coming west from south of Langleydale Common) and Hindon Beck (to the north and coming east from Langleydale Common), the Gaunless wends its way east, passing the settlements of Butterknowle, Cockfield and Evenwood and through West Auckland before skirting the south and east of Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ... on its way to meet the River Wear. An extension of thCopley Met.Officewea ...
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Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle, which is also known as Auckland Palace and to people that live locally as the Bishop's Castle or Bishop's Palace, is located in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. In 1832, this castle replaced Durham Castle as the official residence of the Bishops of Durham. It is now a tourist attraction, but still houses the Bishop's offices; the Castle is a Grade I listed building. History The history of Auckland Castle goes back to the 12th century. Previously a deer park, Bishop Hugh Pudsey established a manor house on the site in around 1183. Because it was near to his hunting estate, a successor, Bishop Bek, relocated his main residence from Durham Castle to Auckland and he later converted the manor house into a castle. In this process, he added the great hall, the chapel and the defensive walls. In 1603 after the Union of the Crowns, Tobias Matthew invited Anne of Denmark, Prince Henry, and Princess Elizabeth to stay at Auckland on their journey fr ...
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Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church.
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Swin Bridge
Swin Bridge (also 'Cockfield Bridge' or 'Haggerleases Bridge') is the local name for a skew arch bridge in County Durham. It was built in 1830 for the Haggerleases branch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, crossing the River Gaunless at Cockfield. It is important as an early example of the masonry arch skew bridge, and the first used to carry a railway. Skew bridges Most arch bridges are constructed at right-angles to the obstruction which they cross, this being the easiest and strongest mode of building. If the obstacle runs at an angle to the new roadway though, the bridge must either have its span made wider to cross the obstacle diagonally, or else the arch must itself be skewed, so that a narrower arch can cross the obstacle more closely. A skew bridge raises the difficulty that the sideways forces in the arch are no longer acting at right-angles to their abutments. If the skew is excessive, the force across the face of the abutment may be enough to make the bridge ...
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Gaunless Bridge
Gaunless Bridge was a railway bridge on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It was completed in 1823 and is one of the first railway bridges to be constructed of iron and the first to use an iron truss. It is also of an unusual lenticular truss design. Location The bridge crosses the River Gaunless at West Auckland, Co. Durham. Although never part of the main line, it was on a branch West of Shildon serving Witton Park Colliery. This branch included two rope-worked inclines at Brusselton and Etherley. Between these, wagons were pulled by horses, rather than the heavier locomotives. The bridge was only required to carry the weight of these horse-worked trains. Despite this, a postcard exists showing a locomotive of the 'Director' class on the bridge, possibly during a test or demonstration. Design It was designed in 1823 by George Stephenson, who was the chief engineer of the railway. As well as being one of the first iron railway bridges, the bridge is the first t ...
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West Auckland, Durham
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England, to the west of Bishop Auckland on the A688 road. It is reputed to have one of the largest village greens in the country, lined with 17th- and 18th-century buildings. History It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century. The Boldon Book in 1183 showed that at that time West Auckland was inhabited by a number of serfs who were part of the tenantry of the Bishop of Durham, Hugh de Puiset, the first of the Prince Bishops. The creation of a church dedicated to St. Helen in the 13th century in Auckland West heralded the beginning of a separate community in what later became known as St. Helen Auckland. After the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway in 1825, the search for coal escalated dramatically in the West Auckland area, and the population increased as a consequence with the promise of emplo ...
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Evenwood
Evenwood is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the south west of Bishop Auckland. It is in the civil parish of Evenwood and Barony, which has a population of 2,534 falling to 2,455 at the 2011 Census. A former coal mining village, the major pit, Randolph Colliery with its associated coke ovens, was worked between 1893 and 1962, and at its peak in 1914 employed over 1000 men. Governance An electoral ward in the name of Evenwood exists. This ward stretches west to Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ... with a total population of 8,114. References External links Villages in County Durham {{Durham-geo-stub ...
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Cockfield, County Durham
Cockfield is a village on the edge of Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is situated 8 miles to the south-west of Bishop Auckland, north-west of Darlington and south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. Remains found on Cockfield Fell suggest there was a settlement in the area during the Iron Age. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, probably dates from the late 12th century. Coal mining began in the area in the medieval period. When the South West Durham coalfield was opened in the 19th and 20th centuries the population of the village grew significantly. The last coal mine closed in 1962. Notable residents One of the more illustrious families to hail from Cockfield was the Martindale family. George Dixon (Cockfield Canal), George Dixon (1731–1785) owned coal mines and was a keen inventor, and was probably the first to use coal gas for gas lighting, illumination. His brother Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779), an astronomer, went to America with Charles Mason in 1763 to s ...
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Butterknowle
Butterknowle is a village in Teesdale, County Durham, England. Butterknowle is situated between the market towns of Bishop Auckland (9 miles to the east) and Barnard Castle (6 miles to the south-west). It has an attractive rural setting within the Gaunless Valley, overlooked by the gorse-covered Cockfield Fell. The fell itself is a scheduled ancient monument, containing evidence of Roman settlements and a medieval coal mine ( Vavasours), thought to be the earliest inland colliery recorded. A colliery at Butterknowle, formerly in the ownership of Sir Henry Vane, and leased to Thomas and Mary Lambert, is mentioned in the court papers of King Charles II in 1660. The village of Butterknowle has a Primary School, Medical Practice, Village Hall, Royal Oak and Diamond Inn public houses, Post Office (closed in 1999, but reopened at the rear of the Diamond Inn premises in 2001) and Agricultural Supplies Merchant. The Church of St John the Evangelist is to be found in the neighbourin ...
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South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway
The South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) built a railway line linking the Stockton & Darlington Railway near Bishop Auckland with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (the West Coast Main Line) at Tebay, via Barnard Castle, Stainmore Summit and Kirkby Stephen. The line opened in 1861 and became known as the Stainmore Line. The Stockton & Darlington absorbed the SD&LUR, and the Stockton & Darlington became a constituent of the North Eastern Railway. The line closed in stages between 1952 and 1962. A short section of the line at Kirkby Stephen East station has been restored by the Stainmore Railway Company. Origins When the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway (L&CR) was approved in June 1844 there were a number of schemes for a railway over the Pennines. The York & Carlisle Railway proposed a route from the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Northallerton via Richmond, Barnard Castle, the Tees Valley, Stainmore and the Eden Valley to the L&CR at Clifton. A rival scheme, the Yo ...
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ...
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Viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide valley, road, river, or other low-lying terrain features and obstacles. The term ''viaduct'' is derived from the Latin ''via'' meaning "road", and ''ducere'' meaning "to lead". It is a 19th-century derivation from an analogy with ancient Roman aqueducts. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of roughly equal length. Over land The longest in antiquity may have been the Pont Serme which crossed wide marshes in southern France. At its longest point, it measured 2,679 meters with a width of 22 meters. Viaducts are commonly used in many cities that are railroad hubs, such as Chicago, Birmingham, London and Manchester. These viaducts cross the large railroad yards that are needed for freight trains there, ...
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Gaunless Viaduct
Gaunless Viaduct, also known as the Lands Viaduct, was a railway viaduct in County Durham. It was designed by Thomas Bouch to carry the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle over the River Gaunless at Lands, also crossing the Haggerleases branch of the railway to Butterknowle. Bouch designed the viaduct in 1862 and it was built as four lattice truss spans supported on diagonally staggered, paired circular brick piers. It opened on 1 August 1863, at a cost of £15,422. It was high with a total span of . The viaduct was built for double track widths, although only a single line was laid at first. In 1899 work began to lay this second line, but it was found that the ironwork of the trusses was so badly decayed that they needed to be replaced. This work took until at least 1903. Several photographs exist showing the bridge at this time, still operating but with the spans supported by substantial timber shoring beneath them. Demoli ...
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