Thanks to Brian Young for information about the route and tothose who kindly provided comments. This route is on landwhich has been owned and managed by Lord Crewe’s Charityfor almost 300 years.

Welcome to a special landscape……shaped by millions of years of natural processesand thousands of years of human activity.

The landscape around Blanchland has been over 300 millionyears in the making. From tropical seas and deltas to glaciers,minerals and miners – all have played their part in shaping thisbeautiful landscape.

This circular walk will introduce you to some of the specialfeatures of the landscape around Blanchland. By spotting cluesin the moors, fields and buildings you’ll find out how to ‘read’the landscape and discover more about its fascinating past.

The sections opposite give some background informationabout how the local rocks and minerals formed, and tell you abit about the area’s mining heritage.

Look out for the STARTon the map overleafand follow thefootsteps...

Walk distance: 5.6 km (3½miles) with 120 m ofascent, taking about 1½ –2 hours

Start/finish: Blanchland carpark (donations welcome) NY 964 504

Terrain: This route follows well-made tracks, minor roads and a publicfootpath, through farmland, across moorland and beside the RiverDerwent. There is a sustained but gentle climb to start and amoderately steep descent near the end. Wear strong shoes or boots.Please keep dogs under close control (on a lead across the moor)and leave gates as you find them. Keep well clear of old mine workings.

Public transport: For timetable information call Traveline on 0871 200 22 33 (www.traveline.info)

Facilities: Blanchland Shop and Post Office, The White MonkTearoom, The Lord Crewe Arms Hotel, a playground and public toilets

Useful maps: Ordnance Survey1:50 000 Landranger 87 Hexham & Haltwhistle1:25 000 Explorer OL43 Hadrian’s Wall1:25 000 Explorer 307 Consett & Derwent ReservoirBritish Geological Survey1:50 000 Geological Sheet 19 Hexham

Centuries of miningThese mineral deposits were the foundation of the NorthPennine economy for many centuries. Lead mining was the mostimportant industry, but many other minerals were alsomined atdifferent times.

The history of lead mining around Blanchland goes back at leastto medieval times. Some early mining appears to have been forsilver as well as lead; silver is present in small amounts in galena(lead ore) and is a by-product of lead smelting. Lead mining hadits heyday in the 18th and 19th centuries, but by the late 19thcentury the industry was in decline. In the 20th century, until the1980s, the area was important for fluorite (also known asfluorspar), which was used in iron and steel making, and in thechemical industry. Evidence of the area's mining past can beseen all over the landscape – as you'll see on this walk. Look outfor mine shafts, miners' cottages, chimneys and spoil heaps.

Hot water and mineralsIn the rocks beneath your feet there is a network of mineral veins.These formed about 290 million years ago, from warm, mineral-rich fluids which flowed through cracks in the rocks deepunderground. These solutions were heated by a buried graniteknown as the Weardale Granite. As the fluids cooled, theirdissolved minerals crystallized on the walls of the cracks,gradually building up the mineral veins and deposits for which theNorth Pennines is world-famous.

Blanchland Geotrail

Blanchland lies in the North Pennines Area ofOutstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and EuropeanGeoparkThe North Pennines AONB is Britain’s first European Geopark, adesignation supported by UNESCO, and is a founding member ofthe Global Geoparks Network. Geoparks are special places withoutstanding geology and landscape, and where there are stronglocal efforts to make the most of geological heritage throughinterpretation, education, conservation and nature tourism. Tofind out more visit www.europeangeoparks.org

Stories in stoneThe North Pennines has been shaped by many different geologicalprocesses, environments and climates. The rocks that form the fellsand dales of the area tell of this journey down the ages. By readingthe landscape and spotting clues in the rocks, we can discover afascinating story - of a deep ocean and violent volcanoes, collidingcontinents and molten rock, tropical seas and lush rain forests, hotwater and minerals, desert dunes and vast ice sheets.

Weardale

Granite

mineral-rich fluids

veins

1

1 limestone limestone

limestone limestone

Formation of the layeredCarboniferous rocks ofthe North Pennines

shale

sandstone

coal

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Tropical North PenninesThe rocks you’ll see in and around Blanchland formed between360 and 300 million years ago – in the Carboniferous Period ofEarth history.

Back in those distant times, the North Pennines lay near theequator and was periodically covered by shallow tropical seas.Skeletons of sea creatures accumulated as limy ooze on the seafloor . Rivers washed mud and sand into the sea, building upvast deltas on which swampy forests grew .In time, thelimy ooze hardened to limestone, the mud and sand became shaleand sandstone, and the forests turned to coal. Periodically, the searose, drowning the deltas and depositing limestone again.

This cycle happened many times, building up repeating layers oflimestone, shale, sandstone and coal.The contrast in hardness ofthese different rocks has influenced the shape of the NorthPennine hills. Layers of hard rock such as sandstone and limestonestand out as terraces, whereas the softer, easily eroded shales formthe gentler slopes between the terraces.

On this walk you’ll see sandstone, shale, terraced hillsides,evidence of ancient river currents,and fossils of some of the plantsthatgrew in the swampy forests.

Elizabeth

Pickett ©

BG

S, NE

RC

© E

lizabeth Pick

ett

12-4

5

Front cover: Shildon Engine House

All photographs and painted map © NPAP/Elizabeth Pickett

Map based partly on OS mapping © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. DurhamCounty Council. LA 100049055. 2015.

Blanchland

Fossils, minerals and mines

Blanchland

Middleton-in-Teesdale

Hexham

Stanhope

Alston

North PenninesAONB & Geopark

The North Pennines is one of England’s most special places – a peaceful, unspoilt landscape with a rich history and vibrant natural beauty. In recognition of this it is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is also a Global Geopark – an accolade endorsed by UNESCO.

Fabulous 31/2-mile (5.6km) walk route from Blanchland,

exploring rocks, fossils and mines.

North Pennines AONB Partnershipwww.northpennines.org.uk+44 (0)1388 528801info@northpenninesaonb.org.uk

NorthPenninesAONB

Supported by:

01/1

5/8K

Printed on 150gsm Revive 100 Silk

@NorthPennAONB

northpennines

northpennaonb

The AONB Partnership has a GreenTourism award for its corporate office

Thanks to Brian Young for information about the route and tothose who kindly provided comments. This route is on landwhich has been owned and managed by Lord Crewe’s Charityfor almost 300 years.

Welcome to a special landscape……shaped by millions of years of natural processesand thousands of years of human activity.

The landscape around Blanchland has been over 300 millionyears in the making. From tropical seas and deltas to glaciers,minerals and miners – all have played their part in shaping thisbeautiful landscape.

This circular walk will introduce you to some of the specialfeatures of the landscape around Blanchland. By spotting cluesin the moors, fields and buildings you’ll find out how to ‘read’the landscape and discover more about its fascinating past.

The sections opposite give some background informationabout how the local rocks and minerals formed, and tell you abit about the area’s mining heritage.

Look out for the STARTon the map overleafand follow thefootsteps...

Walk distance: 5.6 km (3½miles) with 120 m ofascent, taking about 1½ –2 hours

Start/finish: Blanchland carpark (donations welcome) NY 964 504

Terrain: This route follows well-made tracks, minor roads and a publicfootpath, through farmland, across moorland and beside the RiverDerwent. There is a sustained but gentle climb to start and amoderately steep descent near the end. Wear strong shoes or boots.Please keep dogs under close control (on a lead across the moor)and leave gates as you find them. Keep well clear of old mine workings.

Public transport: For timetable information call Traveline on 0871 200 22 33 (www.traveline.info)

Facilities: Blanchland Shop and Post Office, The White MonkTearoom, The Lord Crewe Arms Hotel, a playground and public toilets

Useful maps: Ordnance Survey1:50 000 Landranger 87 Hexham & Haltwhistle1:25 000 Explorer OL43 Hadrian’s Wall1:25 000 Explorer 307 Consett & Derwent ReservoirBritish Geological Survey1:50 000 Geological Sheet 19 Hexham

Centuries of miningThese mineral deposits were the foundation of the NorthPennine economy for many centuries. Lead mining was the mostimportant industry, but many other minerals were also mined atdifferent times.

The history of lead mining around Blanchland goes back at leastto medieval times. Some early mining appears to have been forsilver as well as lead; silver is present in small amounts in galena(lead ore) and is a by-product of lead smelting. Lead mining hadits heyday in the 18th and 19th centuries, but by the late 19thcentury the industry was in decline. In the 20th century, until the1980s, the area was important for fluorite (also known asfluorspar), which was used in iron and steel making, and in thechemical industry. Evidence of the area's mining past can beseen all over the landscape – as you'll see on this walk. Look outfor mine shafts, miners' cottages, chimneys and spoil heaps.

Hot water and mineralsIn the rocks beneath your feet there is a network of mineral veins.These formed about 290 million years ago, from warm, mineral-rich fluids which flowed through cracks in the rocks deepunderground. These solutions were heated by a buried graniteknown as the Weardale Granite. As the fluids cooled, theirdissolved minerals crystallized on the walls of the cracks,gradually building up the mineral veins and deposits for which theNorth Pennines is world-famous.

BlanchlandGeotrail

Blanchland lies in the North Pennines Area ofOutstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and EuropeanGeoparkThe North Pennines AONB is Britain’s first European Geopark, adesignation supported by UNESCO, and is a founding member ofthe Global Geoparks Network. Geoparks are special places withoutstanding geology and landscape, and where there are stronglocal efforts to make the most of geological heritage throughinterpretation, education, conservation and nature tourism. Tofind out more visit www.europeangeoparks.org

Stories in stoneThe North Pennines has been shaped by many different geologicalprocesses, environments and climates. The rocks that form the fellsand dales of the area tell of this journey down the ages. By readingthe landscape and spotting clues in the rocks, we can discover afascinating story - of a deep ocean and violent volcanoes, collidingcontinents and molten rock, tropical seas and lush rain forests, hotwater and minerals, desert dunes and vast ice sheets.

Weardale

Granite

mineral-rich fluids

veins

1

1limestonelimestone

limestonelimestone

Formation of the layeredCarboniferous rocks ofthe North Pennines

shale

sandstone

coal

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Tropical North PenninesThe rocks you’ll see in and around Blanchland formed between360 and 300 million years ago – in the Carboniferous Period ofEarth history.

Back in those distant times, the North Pennines lay near theequator and was periodically covered by shallow tropical seas.Skeletons of sea creatures accumulated as limy ooze on the seafloor . Rivers washed mud and sand into the sea, building upvast deltas on which swampy forests grew . In time, thelimy ooze hardened to limestone, the mud and sand became shaleand sandstone, and the forests turned to coal. Periodically, the searose, drowning the deltas and depositing limestone again .

This cycle happened many times, building up repeating layers oflimestone, shale, sandstone and coal. The contrast in hardness ofthese different rocks has influenced the shape of the NorthPennine hills. Layers of hard rock such as sandstone and limestonestand out as terraces, whereas the softer, easily eroded shales formthe gentler slopes between the terraces.

On this walk you’ll see sandstone, shale, terraced hillsides,evidence of ancient river currents, and fossils of some of the plantsthat grew in the swampy forests.

Eli

zabe

th P

ick

ett

© B

GS,

NE

RC

© E

liza

beth

Pic

ket

t

12 - 4

5

Front cover: Shildon Engine House

All photographs and painted map © NPAP/Elizabeth Pickett

Map based partly on OS mapping © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. DurhamCounty Council. LA 100049055. 2015.

Blanchland

Fossils, minerals and mines

Blanchland

Middleton-in-Teesdale

Hexham

Stanhope

Alston

North PenninesAONB & Geopark

The North Pennines is one of England’s most special places – a peaceful, unspoilt landscape with a rich history and vibrant natural beauty. In recognition of this it is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is also a Global Geopark – an accolade endorsed by UNESCO.

Fabulous 31/2-mile (5.6km) walk route from Blanchland,

exploring rocks, fossils and mines.

North Pennines AONB Partnershipwww.northpennines.org.uk+44 (0)1388 528801info@northpenninesaonb.org.uk

NorthPenninesAONB

Supported by:

01/15/8K

Printed on 150gsm Revive 100 Silk

@NorthPennAONB

northpennines

northpennaonb

The AONB Partnership has a GreenTourism award for its corporate office

Galena

Fluorite

Galena

Fluorite

START

1

2

34

56

7

8

9 10

11

12

13

14

15

BlanchlandBlanchland

Baybridge

River

Derwent

Shildon

Pennypie House

Shildon Burn

0 500 m

N

ShildonShildon was once a bustling mining village. It is hard toimagine now but in the 1850s over 150 people lived here!The surviving cottages are built of local sandstone and roofedwith thin sandstone slabs. The area of bare ground above thecottages is a mix of old lead workings and quarries.

To your left is Shildon Engine House (see front cover). Thishoused a steam-driven engine built in 1806 to pump waterfrom a 200 m-deep shaft that connects with the workingsaccessed by the adit at Stop 1. The venture was not whollysuccessful and steam power was eventually replaced by waterpower. The engine house was then used as accommodation forlead mining families and came to be known as ‘Shildon Castle’.

Smelt mill chimneyAs you walk along the track, look aheadto the hillside on the other side of theDerwent Valley. The chimney on theskyline was at the end of a long fluesystem which carried fumes away from a lead smelt mill in the valley.

Go through the gate and follow the roaddownhill to Baybridge. Follow thefootpath along the north side of the river.

Old quarryThis small quarry to the right of the trackwas once worked to supply sandstone fordry stone walls. Look for sloping layers inthe rock in the old quarry face (seepicture). Known as ‘cross-bedding’, thesewere formed when sand was deposited inunderwater dunes in ancient river deltas.

Heather moorWhen the local sandstones weather,they produce acid soils which, at thesealtitudes, support heather moorland.The best times to be here are in thelate spring, when the moors are alivewith the calls of lapwing and curlew, oraround mid-August, when the heatheris at its purple best.

Pennypie HouseThe name of Pennypie House isthought to have originated at atime when pies were sold here topassing drovers and lead miners –for a penny!

Go through the gate on to themoor and turn left. Follow thetrack along the moor edge.

Barn and dry stone wallsThe barn beside the track shows thenature and variety of the localsandstones. The barn is mainly builtof gritty sandstone containing smallquartz pebbles. A similar variety ofsandstones can be seen in the drystone walls along the route. The barnroof is made of thin sandstone slabs.

2

11

Minerals from the minesThis shingle bank is a good place to spotminerals brought down from mine spoilheaps by the river. Look out for bits ofgalena (lead ore). When fresh, galena isa bright metallic grey, but when exposedto air it becomes a dull lead-grey. Youcan also find small rounded pebbles ofpurple fluorite.

12

Bedded sandstoneSandstone forms small cliffs in the riverbank opposite theplayground. These show roughly flat-lying layering, knownas ‘bedding’, a feature which formed when the rocks weredeposited as layers of sand in ancient river deltas.

13

BlanchlandThe buildings of this historic village aremade of local sandstone and most of theirroofs are made of thin sandstone slabs.Many of these slabs came from LadycrossQuarry in Slaley Forest, about 4 km (21⁄2miles) to the north, where such sandstonehas been quarried for at least 300 yearsand is still worked today.

14

Fossil plantsSeveral large blocks of fine-grainedsandstone in front of the tearoom containfossil tree roots. This type of sandstone isknown as ‘ganister’ and is fossilised soilupon which lush tropical forests of giantferns, horsetails and clubmosses grewduring Carboniferous times.

15

Old shaftsIn the field on the left side of the track, aline of grassed-over mounds of mine wastemarks the line of the Fellgrove Vein, one ofthose worked for lead at Shildon Mine.

10

9

8

7

5

Terraced hillsidesThe hillside to the right of the track rises to aflat-topped terrace. The track gradually climbsup to this and you reach its top at a wide fieldentrance on the right, about 500 m furtheralong the track. Terrace features like these arecharacteristic of the North Pennines and arethe result of the weathering of alternate layersof hard sandstone and soft shale.

6

Old shaftA fenced-off area on the left of the track marksthe site of one of many deep shafts thatprovided access and ventilation to theunderground workings. These long-abandonedshafts, some over 200 m deep, are in adangerous condition – please keep well clear!

4

ShaleSoft and flaky grey shale, much burrowedby rabbits, is exposed on the right side ofthe track.

3

Shildon Lead MineJust beyond a wooden shed, look through agateway on the right. A few overgrown stonewalls above the stream are the remains of theore treatment areas of the once-importantShildon Lead Mine. A horizontal tunnel, or adit,from the side of the stream here gave access toa complex of underground workings. Lead orewas worked here until the late 19th century.

1

START Turn left out of the car park andfollow the road.