Slaggyford is a village in 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Knaresdale with Kirkhaugh, in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England about north of

Alston, Cumbria Alston is a town in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, within the civil parish of Alston Moor. It is located at about above sea level in the North Pennines, the River Tyne, River South Tyne, and shares the title of 'highest market town ...

. It is set in the South Tyne valley (often called the Tyne Gap).

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

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

North Pennines The North Pennines are the northernmost section of the Pennines, a range of hills which run north–south through northern England. They run along the border between County Durham and Northumberland in the east and Cumbria in the west, and are ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

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

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, 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. Th ...

. 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''; ) was a roughly Roman road in northern Britain connecting the Roman fort of Bravoniacum ( Kirkby Thore) near Penrith with that of Magnis (Carvoran) on Hadrian's Wall, via ...

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 In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

constituency of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and 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 nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

. Joe Morris of the Labour Party is the Member of Parliament. Up until

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

, for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...

its residents voted to elect MEP's for the

North East England North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...

constituency. For

Local Government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

purposes it belongs to

Northumberland County Council Northumberland County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Northumberland in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having also ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

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

2009 structural changes to local government in England On 1 April 2009 structural changes to local government in England took place which reformed the local government of seven Non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties: Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, County Durham, Shropshire, Northumber ...

it was part of

Tynedale __NOTOC__ Tynedale was a local government district in Northumberland, England. The district had a resident population of 58,808 according to the 2001 census. The main towns were Hexham, Haltwhistle and Prudhoe. The district contained part of ...

district. The village is within the civil parish of "Knaresdale with Kirkhaugh", 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 using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the Alston Line from

Haltwhistle Haltwhistle is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, east of Carlisle and west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 3,811 at the 2011 Census. Haltwhistle is the closest community to Hadrian's Wall and to Northum ...

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 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. 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