SHILDON really was a railway town. A railway ran beneath it, and a railways ran straight through the middle of it, right up one of its main streets, with the townspeople tripping over the tracks as they went about their daily business.

In particular, there was the Black Boy branchline – one of the earliest branchlines in the world – which ran up the hill into High Shildon, ran past the houses and through the shoppers on Cheapside, and then descended to the collieries around the village of Eldon in the Dene Valley.

“Black Boy” is not a name we’d attach to a railway line in today’s sensitive climate, but the coal area to the north of Shildon had been known as “Black Boy” for centuries – boys who went scrabbling into the narrow coal seams to collect the black gold came out covered in dust.

The Northern Echo: HILLTOP SETTLEMENT: Cheapside, Shildon in the 1890s. On the right is the King William, where the landlord was David Pears, and facing the cameraman on the corner of Market Place is John Boddy's grocer and provision dealer. On the left, the telegraph poles
HILLTOP SETTLEMENT: Cheapside, Shildon in the 1890s. On the right is the King William, where the landlord was David Pears, and facing the cameraman on the corner of Market Place is John Boddy's grocer and provision dealer. On the left, the telegraph poles mark the line of the Black Boy branch as it climbed to the top of the hill

There was a Black Boy Inn at Canney Hill, and in the Dene Valley itself there was the Black Boy Colliery which, in the 1820s, was part-owned by Jonathan Backhouse, of Darlington.

In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway – of which Mr Backhouse was treasurer – came to Low Shildon in search of coal. But its new-fangled locomotives were unable to reach Mr Backhouse’s colliery because of a 500ft high magnesian limestone ridge on top of which stood High Shildon.

On July 10, 1827, the 2½-mile Black Boy branchline was opened so that horses could pull empty wagons off the S&DR and up to the hilltop from where they’d be lowered down to the collieries on the other side.

The branchline left the S&DR beside the coal drops which are now in the grounds of the Locomotion railway museum. The junction is marked by a huddle of tumbledown buildings, which are known as the Black Boy stables and bank riders’ cabin.

The bank riders were pulled up the hill by the horses and then had to ride down the long slope into the Dene Valley, regulating the wagons’ speed as they went. They were only meant to take two wagons at a time down with them because their speed regulation mechanism was far from sophisticated: it was a wooden jemmy which they had to push against the wheels when they thought they were going too fast.

It must have been a hell of a rollercoaster ride.

The Northern Echo: STREET RAILWAY: Wesley Crescent in Shildon was one of the first streets the Black Boy branchline ran past. This picture was probably taken in the 1890s
STREET RAILWAY: Wesley Crescent in Shildon was one of the first streets the Black Boy branchline ran past. This picture was probably taken in the 1890s

The Northern Echo: VISIBLE TRACKBED: The same view 100 years later – Wesley Crescent, Shildon, in March 1980. The girls are walking on the Black Boy trackbed
VISIBLE TRACKBED: The same view 100 years later – Wesley Crescent, Shildon, in March 1980. The girls are walking on the Black Boy trackbed

The Northern Echo: RAILWAY PATH: The Black Boy trackbed was being converted into a footpath behind Windsor Terrace when this picture was taken in September 1962. Beneath the branchline ran the Shildon Tunnel and you can see one of its four ventilation funnels behind the tre
RAILWAY PATH: The Black Boy trackbed was being converted into a footpath behind Windsor Terrace when this picture was taken in September 1962. Beneath the branchline ran the Shildon Tunnel and you can see one of its four ventilation funnels behind the tree on the right

The following year, a stationary engine was built at the top of the bank to replace the horses and the bank riders in pulling the wagons up and lowering them down.

The enginemen lived in a couple of houses opposite the engine – you can still see where they lived as the cottages have a S&DR property plaque on them, with the identification number G12.

The engine didn’t prevent strange accidents taking place. For example, on February 23, 1832, someone had forgotten to put the chocks in the wheels of the wagons standing at the top of the bank. A strong wind got up and it blew the wagons down into the Dene Valley – a terrifying, windpowered runaway train.

The Northern Echo: DUSTY NAME: A drawing by Jeremiah Dixon of the Black Boy colliery in the Dene Valley in the mid 18th Century – before the Black Boy branchline came along
DUSTY NAME: A drawing by Jeremiah Dixon of the Black Boy colliery in the Dene Valley in the mid 18th Century – before the Black Boy branchline came along

But the Black Boy branch provided good quality coal. On December 27, 1831, the S&DR’s steam-powered staithes opened at Middlesbrough so that coal could be exported more efficiently. The first sailing ship to leave, bound for London, was a brig called Maria, and it took “an immense entire coal weighing upwards of two tons” which had come from Black Boy.

Wherever railways went in those early days, industries sprung up beside them, and then communities sprung up beside the industries.

At High Shildon, a quarry and a foundry opened causing more houses – and pubs – to be built, and down in the Dene Valley, many new pits opened, giving birth to settlements like Eldon, Close House, Gurney Valley and Coundon Grange.

It can be no coincidence that one of the pits in the valley was called Adelaide – opened by Joseph Pease, of Darlington, in 1830 – and one of the pubs up at Shildon was called the King William.

The Northern Echo: OLD STREET: Cheapside, in March 1980, with an ICI petrol station on the left. The name “Cheapside” has nothing to do with low price - it comes from an Old English word “ceapan” which meant “to buy”. Cheapside is where you went to buy things â€
OLD STREET: Cheapside, Shildon in March 1980, with the King William on the right and a newsagent where Boddy's grocery was. The Black Boy branchline used to be on the left

All of this industrial expansion was taking place as William IV became king – he succeeded to the throne on June 26, 1830, and was crowned on September 8, 1831 – and William’s wife was Queen Adelaide (we’ll draw a discreet veil over the ten illegitimate children that he had with his actress mistress, Mrs Jordan).

All of this horsing up and down the bank was clearly inefficient, and on January 10, 1842, the Shildon Tunnel was opened. One of the first railway tunnels, it blasted its way under the magnesian limestone ridge, following the same line at the Black Boy branch that was hundreds of feet above it.

On opening day, all the workmen were treated to free meals in six Shildon pubs, while 50 VIPs had a slap-up meal in the Cross Keys, near the King William. S&DR secretary Thomas MacNay said the tunnel would enable locomotives to go much further than just the Dene Valley – and "he hoped the time was not far distant when they would see locomotive engines and trains passing through the wild district about Crook where the people had never seen such a thing before".

The Northern Echo:
UP IN SMOKE: One of the four Shildon Tunnel ventilation funnels, here being inspected in 1975 by a young Echo reporter called by Mike Amos

The tunnel should have made the Black Boy branchline redundant, but for some reason it didn’t. Perhaps it remained as a relief route when the tunnel was closed; perhaps some of the collieries in the Dene Valley found it cheaper to send their coal over it rather than through the tunnel. No one really knows, but the tracks remained in operation until about 1906, and they were not lifted until into the 1930s.

Now they are gone, although you can follow the route of the Black Boy on a footpath from the museum, and up at Cheapside, opposite the King William, a chaldron wagon has been placed as a monument to it.

Even the four large funnels which vented the Shildon Tunnel down below have gone – the last of these large landmarks was demolished in 2008.

ALL of this came about because of the selection of Shildon pictures that appeared in Memories a couple of weeks ago. In response to that article, Mike Pedelty kindly loaned us some pictures, and Alan Ellwood and Raymond Gibson were among those who sent in information.

And Ivan Cliff added: “I was the detective constable at Shildon from 1969 to 1972. Happy days. I remember that the landlord of the King Willy, as it was known, did an overnight flit with money meant for catering services for the police dance – needless to say I got in hot water over it.”

ON the front cover of Echo Memories today is this splendid, although undated, photograph of the Shildon railway sidings that was uncovered during the research for this article in the Echo’s archive.

The Northern Echo:

The sidings were reputedly the largest in the world, and the photographer must be on the Spout Lane bridge looking towards what is today the Locomotion railway museum main building. The junction from which the Black Boy line branched off is behind the photographer.

If you can spot any clues which will help date the picture – late 1950s? – please let us know, and we would be delighted, as always, to receive any information or memories triggered by today’s articles and pictures.