The Northumberland railway line opened on Sunday 15 December, so I decided to pay a visit. The line is an 18-mile (29 km) passenger route between Newcastle and Ashington. There are intermediate stations at Manors and Seaton Delaval. Four further stations are due to open in 2025. Newsham, near Blyth, is almost complete, and will open in February. The other three stations, Northumberland Park, Blyth Bebside and Bedlington will open in the summer. Passenger services have restarted 60 years after falling victim to the Beeching Axe in 1964. But the railway itself has remained open the whole time for freight purposes, which has helped to make the new project viable.
Newcastle
My journey through coal country began in a place synonymous with it. Even in Roman times, coal was found at or near the surface in Newcastle, including ‘drifts’ cut into the steep banks of the river Tyne. My journey began at the magnificent Newcastle Central Station, situated at the edge of Grainger Town.
Manors railway station
The first station towards Ashington is Manors, only two minutes along the line. But Manors isn’t served by Sunday trains, so I walked there and back from Central Station, in between my connecting trains. Manors will only have an hourly service on weekdays. All of the other stations will be served half-hourly. As with many railway stations in the UK, Manors station is a shadow of its former self. It used to have nine platforms, but there are only two now. The current station is an embarrassment to the new railway. There are no facilities for disabled people, with the island platform being reached via a footbridge without a ramp, an unforgivable oversight for a modern transport project. The entrance is hard to find, and is unwelcoming when you do find it. There’s one bus-stop style waiting shelter on the platform.
South of the border
So why is Manors station so terrible? Probably because the reopening project was led by Northumberland County Council, and Manors falls within the boundary of Newcastle City. But the North East Combined Authority (NECA) needs to knock heads together and get this sorted as soon as possible. Install lifts, build a decent waiting room, improve the entrance and signage, and reopen two of the lost platforms to allow local trains to stop at the station without blocking the main line. Come on, Kim!
They’re hard nuts up there, Jack
But I made a short detour before leaving the station. Hidden beneath concrete at the far end of the platform, a stone staircase leads down to Trafalgar Street. The concrete slab can be seen in the photo on the left below. The blocked-up lower entrance, with the stairs hidden behind it, is in the photo on the right. The staircase features in the 1971 crime noir thriller ‘Get Carter’, in which Jack (Michael Caine) secretly pursues Margaret down the stairs after leaving a bingo hall. The stairs aren’t identified as belonging to a railway station and, thanks to movie magic, the bingo hall that they’ve just left was actually on the other side of the city, behind the Gallowgate stand at St James’ Park football ground. The bingo hall has long since been demolished, but there’s now a statue of Alan Shearer across the road. Richard Grainger will be turning in his grave.
Northumberland Park
I headed back to Newcastle Central Station and prepared to board the train to Ashington. There were quite a few people queueing for the train, as there were for all of the services today. The train set off on time and we headed along the East Coast Main Line through Manors station, the track curving to the north. The line then makes a sharp right turn to follow the Tyne & Wear Metro line in the direction of Whitley Bay. We reached the future Northumberland Park station, adjacent to the Metro station of the same time. There’s plenty of work going on to get the new station ready. The line then makes another sharp turn, this time to the left, to head north away from the Metro line. This line meanders quite a bit. Ashington is only 15 miles from Newcastle, but the line is 18 miles long. It’s a slow line too, with an average speed of only 30 mph.
Seaton Delaval
We soon arrived at Seaton Delaval, one of only two new stations to open today. Another former mining village, as most of them are in East Northumberland. Seaton Delaval lost its pit as long ago as 1960. The village itself isn’t a tourist magnet, but the scrambled eggs at the Arrighi cafe are tasty. Seaton Delaval Hall is close by.
English Baroque
Seaton Delaval Hall is a Grade I listed building, a breathtaking baroque tour de force by John Vanburgh. It’s his finest work, and that’s saying something. The hall has been owned by the National Trust since 2009. It’s about a 10-minute cycle ride from the railway station. There’s a bus service too, but I didn’t have time to visit Seaton Delaval Hall today. I’ll make a separate journey along the Northumberland line soon, just to visit the place. It deserves a whole day.
Fun Fact: Old Spice aftershave used to be made in Seaton Delaval. Carl Orff wrote the jingle for their ads back then.
Newsham, Blyth Bebside and Bedlington
The next three stations along the line are due to open in 2025. Newsham and Bebside will serve Blyth, although they’re both some distance from the town. The original Blyth station, in the town centre, was at the end of a branch line. There are no plans to re-open this. Bedlington station will be the next station. It’s another place where coal was mined for centuries. Wooden waggonways conveyed coal from Bedlington to the river Blyth more than 200 years before the birth of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. When it opens, Bedlington will be the only railway station in the UK named after a dog that looks like a sheep.
Ashington – the world’s largest mining village
And so on to the final stop. There’s only one platform at Ashington station, built on a spur from the freight line, where the previous two platforms were located.
The area around Ashington was once the most productive part of the extensive Northumberland and Durham coalfield. It included Ellington pit, known as ‘The Big E’, which frequently set UK records for coal production, with seams worked 15 miles out under the North Sea, producing over 2 million tonnes of coal per year. An intensive commuter rail service, known as ‘Paddy trains’, ran from Hirst Platform railway station, near Ashington town centre, to Ellington and Linton collieries. Trains ran 24/7, 100 of them each day, ferrying miners to and from work. Their family members were allowed to use the railway at discounted rates, and schoolchildren travelled free.
Yet another forgotten railway
The Ashington miner’s railway system was latterly owned and run by the National Coal Board until its closure in 1966. Nothing remains of any of the three stations on one of the busiest commuter railways in the North East, a network almost forgotten except by a dwindling number of ex-miners and their families. he remains of Hirst Platform station are hidden in a forestry plantation, to the left of the photo below. There are numerous coniferous plantations dotted around this area, the chosen method of reclaiming former collieries and open-pit coal mines.
Black gold
Ellington, the last of the Northumbrian coal mines, closed in 2005. Woodhorn Mine has survived as a mining museum, with well-preserved pit head gear. You can also see exhibits of the work of Ashington’s ‘Pitmen Painters’ here. The museum is a 30 minute walk from the railway station though. Just as with Seaton Delaval, I’ll return to Ashington to spend a day at the museum and its surrounding park.
We’re not in Geordieland anymore
People from outside of the North East often think of Ashington people as Geordies, but they’re not. They speak a distinct dialect known as ‘Pitmatic’, a very different sound to that spoken just down the road in Newcastle. A good example of a Pitmatic speaker was legendary football player and manager Jack Charlton, who briefly worked as a miner before making a late start as a footballer. Jack and his brother Bobby, one of the greatest international footballers of all time, lived at Beatrice Street in Ashington. Their dad was working down Linton Colliery on the day of the World Cup Final in 1966, in which the two brothers played. Beatrice Street forms part of a large, neat grid of stone built terraced houses in the Hirst area of the town. I visited the Charltons’ neighbourhood and took this photo.
The past is a different country
One last pilgrimage before returning to the station. Hirst Park, a few minutes walk from Beatrice Street, is where the Charlton brothers honed their skills. A plaque explains their connection to the park. Then, further on, there’s a statue of Jack. Middlesbrough fans have fond memories of those heady days of the mid 1970s, when the Boro walked the Second Division then took their only realistic shot at winning the First, courtesy of Jack Charlton. Ireland fans loved him too, not to mention Leeds United. I said not to mention Leeds United. Take a bow, Jack.
Phoenix from the ashes
East Northumberland has seen better days. Ashington, in particular, has suffered from rust belt decline for nearly six decades. But the town, and the others served by this revived railway, is going to receive an immediate benefit from the project. Commuters have now got a comfortable, relatively fast, journey to Newcastle city centre, including interchange with the Metro at three stations. And people who live and work in the city, baulking at the price of accommodation, might look at property prices up here and start to do their sums.
Visiting the line
Trains are operated by 40 year old Class 158 trains. The project leader intends to bid for newer ones. For local residents, the Tyne & Wear Metro has created a new zone, Zone D, to bring the Northumberland Line into its single ticketing area, using Pop Pay As You Go. You can tap in and out at the new stations in the same way as for Metro ones. This is an excellent idea, and will supercharge ridership. The new Metro map and a Northern Rail timetable are shown below:
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