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Weardale Railway
The Weardale Railway is an independently-owned British single-track branch line heritage railway between , Witton-le-Wear, Wolsingham, Frosterley and Stanhope. Weardale Railway began services on 23 May 2010, but decided to run special trains rather than a scheduled service for the 2013 season. The line was purchased by the Auckland Project in 2020 with a view to restarting passenger services. In 2021, a bid was submitted to the ' Restoring Your Railways fund. In October 2021, the Department for Transport allocated funding for the development of a business case. The railway originally ran from Bishop Auckland to Wearhead in County Durham, North-East England, a distance of , built in the nineteenth century to carry limestone from Eastgate-in-Weardale, and provide passenger services to Weardale. Passenger services ceased in 1953, leaving only freight services to Eastgate until 1992. After the quarry's owner Lafarge moved to road transport in 1993, the line was threatened wit ...
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Bishop Auckland And Weardale Railway
Bishop Auckland is a railway station that serves the market town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, North East England, north-west of Darlington. The station is the Western terminus of the Tees Valley Line, which links it to via . It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains. History Opening Bishop Auckland gained its first rail link in 1842, when the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) backed Bishop Auckland & Weardale Railway (BA&WR) gained the powers via an Act of Parliament to build a railway line from the S&DR's station at via Bishop Auckland and Witton-le-Wear into Crook, County Durham. The company initially built a temporary terminus at South Church, which opened on 19 April 1842. A road coach service then extended the service into Bishop Auckland, and a secondary road coach service also ran to Rainton Meadows. After completion of the Shildon tunnel, the BA&WR erected a permanent station on the current site, which opened to freight on 8 Novembe ...
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County Durham
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly â€About North East England. Retrieved 30 November 2007. The ceremonial county spawned from the historic County Palatine of Durham in 1853. In 1996, the county gained part of the abolished ceremonial county of Cleveland.Lieutenancies Act 1997
. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
The county town is the of



Witton-le-Wear
Witton-le-Wear is a village in County Durham, North East England. It is situated on the north bank of the River Wear, to the north-west of Bishop Auckland. Geography and administration Witton-le-Wear is part of the North West Durham Parliamentary constituency, and is represented by Richard Holden (Conservative). The village is within Weardale Ward, which elects two councillors to Durham County Council. The current councillors are Anita Savory (Independent) and John Shuttleworth (Independent). Witton-le-Wear also has an eight-member Parish Council. The local police force is Durham Constabulary. Witton-le-Wear is in the Wear and Tees division. History Etymology The place name ''Witton'' or ''Whitton'' is fairly common in the north of England. While the name can mean "white farm", in the case of Witton-le-Wear ''Witton'' refers to a farm (Anglo-Saxon: ''ton'') in or near woodland (Anglo-Saxon: ''widu''). Witton-le-Wear's name is attested as ''Wudeton'' from 1104, but had becom ...
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David Bellamy
David James Bellamy (18 January 1933 – 11 December 2019) was an English botanist, television presenter, author and environmental campaigner. Early and personal life Bellamy was born in London to parents Winifred May (née Green) and Thomas Bellamy on 18 January 1933. He was raised in a Baptist family and retained a strong Christian faith throughout his life. As a child, he had hoped to be a ballet dancer, but he concluded that his rather large physique regrettably precluded him from pursuing the training. Bellamy went to school in south London, attending Chatsworth Road Primary School in Cheam, Cheam Road Junior School, and Sutton County Grammar School, where he initially showed an aptitude for English literature and history; he then found his vocation because of an inspirational science teacher, studying zoology, botany, physics, and chemistry in the sixth form. He gained an honours degree in botany at Chelsea College of Science and Technology (now part of King's College ...
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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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Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes'' (1965), written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board. The first report identified 2,363 stations and of railway line for closure, amounting to 55% of stations, 30% of route miles, and 67,700 British Rail positions, with an objective of stemming the large losses being incurred during a period of increasing competition from road transport and reducing the rail subsidies necessary to keep the network running. The second report identified a small number of major routes for significant investment. The 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicised changes, including a switch to the now-standard practice of containerisation for rail freight, and the replacement of some services wit ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ...
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Weardale Extension Railway
The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was an early British mineral railway, that ran from Stanhope in County Durham, to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne. The object was to convey limestone from Stanhope and coal from West Consett and elsewhere to the Tyne, and to local consumers. Passengers were later carried on parts of the line. The line opened on 15 May 1834, but it was not financially successful. It had been formed by a partnership, and the heavily indebted partners floated a new company, the Pontop and South Shields Railway to continue operations and take over the debt. Part of the line was bought by the Derwent Iron Company (which later became the Consett Iron Company. Much of the S&TR system was built through hilly, sparsely populated terrain across the moors of County Durham, and it incorporated several rope-worked inclines as well as using horse traction and steam locomotives on level sections. Dependent on the activity of mineral workings, and subject to more mo ...
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Stanhope And Tyne Railway
The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was an early British mineral railway, that ran from Stanhope in County Durham, to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne. The object was to convey limestone from Stanhope and coal from West Consett and elsewhere to the Tyne, and to local consumers. Passengers were later carried on parts of the line. The line opened on 15 May 1834, but it was not financially successful. It had been formed by a partnership, and the heavily indebted partners floated a new company, the Pontop and South Shields Railway to continue operations and take over the debt. Part of the line was bought by the Derwent Iron Company (which later became the Consett Iron Company. Much of the S&TR system was built through hilly, sparsely populated terrain across the moors of County Durham, and it incorporated several rope-worked inclines as well as using horse traction and steam locomotives on level sections. Dependent on the activity of mineral workings, and subject to more mo ...
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Derwent Iron Company
The Consett Iron Company Ltd was an industrial business based in the Consett area of County Durham in the United Kingdom. The company owned coal mines and limestone quarries, and manufactured iron and steel. It was registered on 4 April 1864 as successor to the Derwent & Consett Iron Company Ltd. This in turn was the successor to the Derwent Iron Company, founded in 1840. The company's seven collieries and various coke ovens came into the ownership of the National Coal Board, when British coal companies were nationalised in 1947. The Consett Iron Company itself was nationalised in 1951, becoming part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain. It was denationalised shortly afterwards, then renationalised in 1967. The Consett Iron Company was absorbed into British Steel Corporation in 1967, and the location became known as the Consett Steel Works. British Steel Consett Works was closed in 1980. Early history In 1840 a group of local businessmen led by Jonathan Richa ...
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