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Deepdale, sometimes spelt Deep Dale, is a side valley of
/ref> Deepdale Beck, a tributary of theEnglish Heritage: Images of England website
/ref> Deerbolt army camp Startforth used Deepdale as a training ground until the early 1960s. The road at the bottom of the dale was tarmac with concrete bollards on each side, as you went up the road there was 2 Nissan army huts on the left side of the river a little further up on the right hand side of the road was ditches which are still there but filled with bog plants, these used to have barbed wire over them so the soldiers had to crawl under the wire through the ditches. I think there was 4 in the open area on the right of the road. The road then dips down to a concrete ford and onto the rifle ranges. The open land was used for parking and there was rifle shooting ranges aiming towards the bank next to the back of a concrete roofed building. This was used as a store, the targets were pulled up on top of the bank next to the building.
Deepdale, sometimes spelt Deep Dale, is a side valley of Teesdale
Teesdale is a dale, or valley, located principally in County Durham, North East England. It is one of the Durham Dales, which are themselves part of the North Pennines, the northernmost part of the Pennine uplands.
The dale is named after ...
in County Durham
County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
, England. In its lower reaches, just west of the town of Barnard Castle
Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit ...
, the valley is well wooded, and is a nature reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...
, known for its bird life and a population of otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...
s.John Durkin Ecology: Deepdale Nature Reserve/ref> Deepdale Beck, a tributary of the
River Tees
The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...
, runs through the valley. By the beck is the Great Stone, a glacial erratic
A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...
from Shap
Shap is a village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. The village is in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to ...
in Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
, one of the largest erratics in Teesdale.
The valley was once crossed by the Deepdale Viaduct, west of Barnard Castle. The viaduct was designed by Thomas Bouch
Sir Thomas Bouch (; 22 February 1822 – 30 October 1880) was a British railway engineer. He was born in Thursby, near Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, Cumberland, and lived in Edinburgh. As manager of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway he introduc ...
(of the Tay Bridge disaster fame) and built in 1861 to carry the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway
The South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) built a railway line linking the Stockton and Darlington Railway near Bishop Auckland with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (the West Coast Main Line) at Tebay, via Barnard Castle, Stainm ...
. It closed in 1962 and was dismantled in 1963.
At the foot of the dale the Deepdale Aqueduct, which is also a footbridge, crosses the River Tees. It was built in 1898, and is a Grade II listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
./ref> Deerbolt army camp Startforth used Deepdale as a training ground until the early 1960s. The road at the bottom of the dale was tarmac with concrete bollards on each side, as you went up the road there was 2 Nissan army huts on the left side of the river a little further up on the right hand side of the road was ditches which are still there but filled with bog plants, these used to have barbed wire over them so the soldiers had to crawl under the wire through the ditches. I think there was 4 in the open area on the right of the road. The road then dips down to a concrete ford and onto the rifle ranges. The open land was used for parking and there was rifle shooting ranges aiming towards the bank next to the back of a concrete roofed building. This was used as a store, the targets were pulled up on top of the bank next to the building.
References
External links
* * {{coord, 54.54, -1.99, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Nature reserves in County Durham Valleys of County Durham