Old upper Teesdale railway tunnel filled in due to safety concerns

A SLICE of Teesdale history has been removed from the countryside.

An old railway tunnel, which once allowed trains to transport stone from quarries in Lunedale, has been dug up and filled in for safety reasons.

Durham County Council officers worked for two weeks to remove the tunnel under the B6279, otherwise known as the Lunedale Road.

It was last used in the 1930s when Green Gate and Laithkirk quarries were closed. Farmer John Wilkinson, who lives at nearby Lonton East Farm, remembers playing in the tunnel as a child.

The 84-year-old said: “The train driver was Bill Sutherland, and he was known as Smasher. I never knew why they called him Smasher. Green Gates was closed on health and safety grounds in about 1933. There is very little left in Laithkirk Quarry, just a few foundations.”

The narrow gauge line was connected to the main line that ran from Barnard Castle to Middleton-in-Teesdale, he said. The county council’s head of technical services, John Reed, confirmed that work had to be carried out because and inspection showed that the tunnel was in poor condition.

He said: “As a result, it was decided that the safest option was to fully fill in the tunnel to provide adequate support to the highway, and this is now complete.”