( Grid Ref. 357 467 )

Directions to point I

Carefully cross the road and walk along Bailey Way through the newer houses. After 100 metres turn left into Gilesgate Road and a steep little bank. After 80 metres turn right into Pimlico Road and walk to the very end of the street and locating a stile leading into open country. Climb the stile and walk along the raised embankment (once part of the Elemore extension railway). Climb steadily uphill keeping the golf course on your right then pass through some immature trees to emerge into the car park of the Elemore Golf Club.

( Point I ) Grid Ref 356 456   QR code or link to information.

Heritage Information Point H

The point where the Hetton Railway, Elemore extension, ran across the A182 close to the Lyons Tavern. The crossing had gates and was always known as “The White Gates”. Originally the gatekeeper stopped the road traffic using a red flag. The railway line originally was what is known as an “incline”. Full trucks of coal from Elemore coliiery, three quarters of a mile away ran downhill in groups of four or five and held only by a man on a brake and attached to an endless rope. As the full trucks came down, their weight in turn, pulled up a group of empty trucks back to the colliery at the top of the incline.
The chaldron (truck) was used as the measure for coal from the 13th century, measuring by volume being much more practical than weighing low-value, high-bulk commodities like coal. It was not standardized, and there were many different regional chaldrons, the two most important being the Newcastle and London chaldrons. Once the chaldron waggon became standardised at the end of the 17th century the amount of coal each one carried was 53 hundredweight (approx 2.6 tons). Most colliery companies had their own Chaldrons, generally painted black and stamped in white paint with the initials of the coal company e.g. HCC or LCC. On arrival at Elemore there is a chaldron on display next to the golf club car park.

A chaldron waggon being pulled by a horse	Puffing Billy Locomotive at Elemore Colliery