Etherley and Brusselton Inclines – England - Atlas Obscura

Etherley and Brusselton Inclines

A length of abandoned railway track that was the real starting point of the worlds first steam hauled passenger railway. 

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An event that changed the world took place on 27th of September 1825. The opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. This was the first public railway to use steam powered locomotives to haul coaches carrying passengers. However this railway’s  main purpose was taking coal from the South Durham coalfields to the River Tees at Stockton and from there, by sea,  to the worlds  markets. Passenger hauling was stated at the time to be an “experiment”. It is often stated that the small town of Shildon , County Durham, was the western  terminus of the railway (the town certainly proclaims this proudly today) but in reality this was only the limit of locomotive -hauled operation. From the inception the western terminus of the line was to be  a coal mine at Witton Park (sometimes called Phoenix Pit) several miles further west.

The owner of the Witton Park Colliery, William Chaytor  persuaded the Stockton and Darlington Railways to start the world’s first public railway  at Witton Park . The railway was built by the famous  George Stephenson. In fact the route used by “Locomotive Number One” ,or “Locomotion”,  started at Shildon but this was only because the locomotive hauled  train could not get over the  two hills between Witton Park and Shildon. The coal wagons were first rope hauled by stationary steam engine  up the length of track known as  Etherley Incline, and then  lowered down the other side  under gravity where further wagons were attached (on the opening day this included those loaded with flour and several passengers). Horses were used to haul the wagons across the valley to the next hill. These wagons were then rope  hauled, under steam power,  up another incline system at Brusselton then lowered down  to Shildon.  

At Shildon the wagons were hitched up to a locomotive- hauled train which also included passenger coaches as part of the revolutionary “experiment” which changed transport forever. The stationary steam engine for the Etherley Incline was said to have been originally intended for a steam boat but the Brusselton one was purpose produced by  a company owned by Robert Stephenson, George  Stephenson’s son. From the outset it is likely that the incline systems were seen as a cheap temporary means of getting the railway underway. The first coal left the mine  at Witton Park  in 1825, but 17 years later after completion of a necessary tunnel  a new route was opened the locomotive hauled trains were  able to pull up directly outside the Witton Park colliery

Whilst the Brusselton incline kept working, to serve local coal mines , for a couple of years the new route to Witton lead to the immediate closure of the Etherly Incline and a row workmans’  houses , known as Phoenix Row, was built on the , flatter western end of the route. Today the first accessible  part of the route is on a very impressive embankment  between Phoenix row and the B6282 Road.  Only by walking the route can one get a real impression of the massive undertaking that the route represented.

The bridge which used to take  road traffic over the railway has long been demolished and the cutting below filled in but at the side of the site of the bridge is a former Inn , bearing the name ^Railway Bridge Inn”. On the lower section there are no remains of the sleeper stones which once carried the tracks but if you walk across the road and continue up the incline (now in a cutting) there are a series of these sleeper stones still in position on the track bed. However many have been robbed away for use in local  buildings and if you walk up to the site of the engine house you will see many which have been used to repair the dry stone perimeter wall. The engine house and engineman’s cottage were demolished in 1980 and all that remains at the summit is the pond which supplied water to the steam engine and the orchard that was part of the engineman’s garden. The cutting is a deepening of a natural stream valley an along the route through the cutting you will also see the partially culverted stream which  had to be  re routed away from the  track when the cutting was completed. The Brusselton Incline is in rather better condition partly because  it is maintained by a voluntary group known as the Brusselton Incline Group. Many more of the sleeper stones are present and clearly visible and there is a significant“accommodation bridge”  to take  farm traffic road under the impressive embankment that forms part of the route. This is one of the oldest railway bridges in the world. This route has several original mile posts. Fortunately the original engine house is still present, having been converted to a residence, and the water supply reservoir is still in good condition. Unfortunately the later engine house built in 1831 for a better steam engine, has been demolished.

This old railway track lasted in use for  under 20 years but historically it is  very important, representing the start of passenger railways but remembering the transition phase between locomotive haulage and rope and horse haulage in the early 19th century. Coal from Witton Park was also one of the economic drivers which allowed the establishment of the Stockton and Darlington railway.

Know Before You Go

It is possible to walk the full length of the route between Phoenix Row and Shildon. Both inclines are designated ancient monuments.

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