An exit through the north side of the dene at Dalton-le-Dale brought the wonderful sight of the green improvements at the playing fields at Seaham Community Centre, rows of vibrant orange protecting the newly-replanted grass seed, zinging in the bright sunshine.
The slide show of the 18 photographs that made the cut is here, but in case you can’t see Flash on your lovely shiny new iPad or phone, this is the beginning. It’s one of the cameraphone pictures, which is why it’s a bit blurry and a funny square-ish shape:
.. this one’s roughly the middle, in the grounds of what would have once been Dawdon Hall:
As I traced my way through a little group of streets with exquisitely tended gardens and shiny windows, across a well varnished garden fence, a proper transistor radio, the sound of summer pottering and pruning:
From there, along to The Mill, which deserves a whole other foray. No mill there now, but the magnificent modernist RC Church of St Cuthbert, tucked away above the road. If you were to be carrying the body of Cuthbert from Linsdisfarne to Durham, you’d spend the night with the people who founded St Mary’s at Seaham, before travelling west, wouldn’t you?
This is the corner of the ancient Salter’s Lane, the old, old trading route running from the banks of the River Wear through Warden Law and Haswell to the salt flats of Greatham and the Tees. It marks the entrance to the very lovely Seaton Village, which does not yet have a presence on the internet. Someone’s created a circular cycle route following parts of the salters’ lanes and using the coast and mineral lines, or waggonways. I didn’t see any cyclists, although there was a runner on the main Houghton Road.
I didn’t take my Brompton on this section: I wasn’t sure how I’d get it though the narrow and sometimes muddy dene paths, and also at 2.8 miles it didn’t seem worth doing on a cycle. On second thoughts, it is definitely possible, and worth repeating as a bike trip, likely adding to Section 1 and Section 3. Let me know if you’d like to come along.
Were you asking why not Section 2 first, and not Section 1?
Section 1’s the easy bit: the route from the sea to my front door. It may qualify as the best part of the whole journey, lucky as I am to live in such a beautiful spot. If I’d started with the official Section 1 of my journey from coast-to-coast, it might feel as if I hadn’t really started, since I do it so often. It’ll keep for a day of snow or rain or sleet, or a raw moonlit night in deep mid winter.
Next Section, the 3rd, is from Seaton Village to Houghton-le-Spring. More salt routes, a couple of ancient copses, and a mesolithic village, plus some breathtaking views over the Durham plain from the top of the hill. The Brompton and the Blad will be going along.
If you want to follow this journey coast to coast from East to West, I’ll be publishing progress to my social media accounts: Twitter, Facebook, Audioboo, Foursquare
Not sure whether it’s a good idea to open separate accounts for this journey, or to just to use a tag or hashtag. En balance I’d rather blog here, in sections as they happen, but I’d be glad to know what you think. The hashtag is #eastwest but this work is also #deepseadiving which I realise I haven’t written much about, yet.
Walking back to the 60 bus stop to return to base, added another 0.8 of a mile to the journey, so in all, and with detours for photos and general nosing, this Section was about 4 miles.
Section 2 ROUTE Slide Show
Friday 11th June – Shrewsbury Street to Seaton Village: 2.8 miles
Cumulative total = 2.8 miles
With detours = 4 miles
Pictures and Sounds from EastWest 2
An exit through the north side of the dene at Dalton-le-Dale brought the wonderful sight of the green improvements at the playing fields at Seaham Community Centre, rows of vibrant orange protecting the newly-replanted grass seed, zinging in the bright sunshine.
The slide show of the 18 photographs that made the cut is here, but in case you can’t see Flash on your lovely shiny new iPad or phone, this is the beginning. It’s one of the cameraphone pictures, which is why it’s a bit blurry and a funny square-ish shape:
.. this one’s roughly the middle, in the grounds of what would have once been Dawdon Hall:
As I traced my way through a little group of streets with exquisitely tended gardens and shiny windows, across a well varnished garden fence, a proper transistor radio, the sound of summer pottering and pruning:
From there, along to The Mill, which deserves a whole other foray. No mill there now, but the magnificent modernist RC Church of St Cuthbert, tucked away above the road. If you were to be carrying the body of Cuthbert from Linsdisfarne to Durham, you’d spend the night with the people who founded St Mary’s at Seaham, before travelling west, wouldn’t you?
View St Cuthbert’s Church in a larger map
And so to the end:
This is the corner of the ancient Salter’s Lane, the old, old trading route running from the banks of the River Wear through Warden Law and Haswell to the salt flats of Greatham and the Tees. It marks the entrance to the very lovely Seaton Village, which does not yet have a presence on the internet. Someone’s created a circular cycle route following parts of the salters’ lanes and using the coast and mineral lines, or waggonways. I didn’t see any cyclists, although there was a runner on the main Houghton Road.
I didn’t take my Brompton on this section: I wasn’t sure how I’d get it though the narrow and sometimes muddy dene paths, and also at 2.8 miles it didn’t seem worth doing on a cycle. On second thoughts, it is definitely possible, and worth repeating as a bike trip, likely adding to Section 1 and Section 3. Let me know if you’d like to come along.
Were you asking why not Section 2 first, and not Section 1?
Section 1’s the easy bit: the route from the sea to my front door. It may qualify as the best part of the whole journey, lucky as I am to live in such a beautiful spot. If I’d started with the official Section 1 of my journey from coast-to-coast, it might feel as if I hadn’t really started, since I do it so often. It’ll keep for a day of snow or rain or sleet, or a raw moonlit night in deep mid winter.
Next Section, the 3rd, is from Seaton Village to Houghton-le-Spring. More salt routes, a couple of ancient copses, and a mesolithic village, plus some breathtaking views over the Durham plain from the top of the hill. The Brompton and the Blad will be going along.
If you want to follow this journey coast to coast from East to West, I’ll be publishing progress to my social media accounts: Twitter, Facebook, Audioboo, Foursquare
Not sure whether it’s a good idea to open separate accounts for this journey, or to just to use a tag or hashtag. En balance I’d rather blog here, in sections as they happen, but I’d be glad to know what you think. The hashtag is #eastwest but this work is also #deepseadiving which I realise I haven’t written much about, yet.
Walking back to the 60 bus stop to return to base, added another 0.8 of a mile to the journey, so in all, and with detours for photos and general nosing, this Section was about 4 miles.
Section 2
ROUTE
Slide Show
Friday 11th June – Shrewsbury Street to Seaton Village: 2.8 miles
Cumulative total = 2.8 miles
With detours = 4 miles
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