Slaggyford is a village in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England about north of

Alston, Cumbria Alston is a town in Cumbria, England, within the civil parish of Alston Moor on the River South Tyne. It shares the title of the 'highest market town in England', at about above sea level, with Buxton, Derbyshire. Despite its altitude, the town ...

. It is set in

South Tyne South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

valley (often called the Tyne Gap).

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

lies to the north of the Tyne Gap. The South Tyne Valley falls within the

North Pennines The North Pennines is the northernmost section of the Pennine range of hills which runs north–south through northern England. It lies between Carlisle to the west and Darlington to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Tyne Valley and ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

(AONB), the second largest of the 40 AONBs in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

. Slaggyford takes its name from the Old English for ‘muddy, dirty ford’, which may originate from quickly moving river water stirring up the river bed at the bottom of a short steep hill, as the river drops from to from Alston to Slaggyford. The

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

runs through the village on its way northwards from Alston to Greenhead. The

Maiden Way The Maiden Way or Maidenway (Middle English: ''Maydengathe''; lat-med, Via Puellarum) was a roughly Roman road in northern Britain connecting the Roman fort of Bravoniacum (Kirkby Thore) near Penrith with that of Magnae (Carvoran) on ...

Roman road passes through Slaggyford, with the

A689 road The A689 is a road in northern England that runs east from the A595, to the west of Carlisle in Cumbria, to Hartlepool in County Durham. The road begins west of Carlisle, just outside the city at the A595. The initial stretch was recently co ...

following the line of the Roman road for a few hundred yards on the way south out of the village.

Governance

Slaggyford is in the

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

constituency of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...

Guy Opperman Guy Thomas Opperman (born 18 May 1965) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Employment since October 2022. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions and Financial Inclusion at the Department for Work ...

of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

is the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. Up until

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

, for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

its residents voted to elect MEP's for the

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

constituency. For

Local Government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

purposes it belongs to

Northumberland County Council Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. The population of the non-metropolitan unitary authority at the 2011 census was 316,028. History It was formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of N ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, with Slaggyford lying in the ''South Tynedale Division''. Prior to the

2009 structural changes to local government in England Structural changes to local government in England were effected on 1 April 2009, whereby a number of new unitary authorities were created in parts of the country which previously operated a "two-tier" system of counties and districts. In five s ...

it was part of

Tynedale __NOTOC__ Tynedale is an area and former local government district in south-west Northumberland, England. The district had a resident population of 58,808 according to the 2001 Census. Its main towns were Hexham, Haltwhistle and Prudhoe. The ...

district. The village is within the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Knaresdale with Kirkhaugh Knarsdale, historically Knaresdale, is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Knaresdale with Kirkhaugh, in Northumberland, England about north of Alston. The village takes its name from the Knarr Burn: Knarr means 'rugg ...

, from the parish's formation on 1 April 1955 to 3 August 1967 it was called "Slaggyford".

Transport

Slaggyford was served by a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

on the Alston Line from

Haltwhistle Haltwhistle is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, east of Brampton. It had a population of 3,811 at the 2011 Census. Stone-built houses are a feature of Haltwhistle. It is one of two settlements in Great Britain which c ...

to Alston. The line opened in 1852 and closed in 1976. Since 1983, a 2 foot (0.61 m) narrow gauge railway has been opened on part of the original track bed. It is called the

South Tynedale Railway The South Tynedale Railway is a preserved, Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge heritage railway in Northern England and at 875ft is England's second highest narrow gauge railway after the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway in north Devon. The South ...

and currently runs for from Alston to the old station at Slaggyford and includes crossing three viaducts up the South Tyne Valley and over the

River South Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wat ...

. Construction of the section of track from Lintley to Slaggyford was completed in July 2017, and as of June 2018 regular passenger trains had started to run from the station.

References

External links

South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society
Villages in Northumberland {{Northumberland-geo-stub

Governance

Transport

See also

References

External links