All aboard for the Hole of Paradise - in Yarm

The book tells of the 1.2-mile long Yarm branchline which in 1825 ran off the Stockton & Darlington Railway and down into the Hole of Paradise where the world’s first purpose-built railway pub was built.

The Hole of Paradise – we’ve no idea how it came by that wonderful name – is in Eaglescliffe on the north approach to Yarm’s bridge over the Tees, and the railway engineers used the lie of the land to their advantage.

The Cleveland Bay pub would still be recognisible to the traveller of 1825 as the New Inn. The new book, which is launched in the pub on Wednesday, July27 at 6.30pm, points out that its equine name is not a betrayal of its railway roots as the Cleveland Bay breed of horses where Britain's favourite coaching

First of all, the branchline curved off the mainline where Allens West station is today and ran gently downhill into the Hole of Paradise. For all of the line’s 50-year life, it was operated by horses rather than locomotives.

In August 1828, apparently at the suggestion of George Stephenson, the railway trialled the first use of dandy carts on the line. The horse rode downhill in a specially-built cart which was at the rear of the train. When the train reached the coal depot in the Hole of Paradise, the horse would get out and, as fresh as a daisy, be ready to pull the empty wagons back up to the start of the line. Horses quickly came to understand the workings of the dandy cart, knowing when to jump in for a ride and when to jump off and walk to the front of the train to begin their work.

George Stephenson is said to have come up with the idea of the dandy cart and it was trialled on the Yarm branchline in August 1828. It was adopted over much of the rail network which didn't use steam locos

In the depot, the railway used the steep drop down to the river for its coal drops. The horses manoeuvred the wagons onto the top of the brick arches of the drops and the coal was then dropped onto the lower level for carters to take it away over Yarm bridge for sale in Yorkshire.

The depot was busiest in the 1840s, when it handled more than 10,000 tons of coal a year plus lime, which was used as fertiliser, and quarried stone for building.

The coal depot at Eaglescliffe in 1954, with the white Cleveland Bay pub at the front and the arches of the coal drops behind. Picture: Bradford District Museums. Below, the coal depot at the Hole of Paradise as it looks today with flats having been built on top of the drops

Bill Ramage's model of the Hole of Paradise in its heyday. On the left is the Cleveland Bay pub with the coal drops behind it, their arched cells using the natural lie of the land as it fell down to the river

In front of the depot, and facing on to Yarm bridge, was the new pub, originally called the New Inn.

It along with the branchline was opened on October 17, 1825, just three weeks after the mainline of the S&DR had opened on September 27, 1825.

On that first day, horses pulled 20 wagons of coal into the Hole of Paradise and, because transport costs were suddenly so cheap, the coal immediately sold in Yarm at half its usual price.

“In the evening, about 60 respectable tradesmen met at the new inn at the end of the Yarm branch of the railway to celebrate the event and also that of the opening of the said inn, where an excellent supper was provided by the landlord, Mr Snowdon,” said the Durham County Advertiser.

This was John Snowdon, formally the landlord of the Three Tuns in Stockton, and the new inn is now called the Cleveland Bay – the world’s oldest purpose built railway pub.

Thomas Meynell, of Yarm, the first chairman of the S&DR in 1821 who owned the Hole of Paradise

The Hole of Paradise was owned by Thomas Meynell, the lord of the manor of Yarm, who was also chairman of the S&DR. It was he who on May 23, 1822, had laid the first rail in Stockton as the line was constructed – and on that occasion he failed to make a speech, which allowed a boy to tour the streets selling souvenir copies of his address for a penny a sheet to outraged customers who found they’d bought a blank piece of paper.

The pub in the Hole of Paradise was called the New Inn from 1825 until the late 1840s when it became the Railway Inn (sometimes hotel). Around the Second World War, it was renamed the Cleveland Bay

Mr Meynell also owned the depot and the new inn, and he was usually something of a showman. He funded the Yarm Town Band which seemed to follow him around and provide a fanfare for his public appearances. The musicians were present on that opening day.

“Mr Meynell’s band attended and performed several appropriate airs during the evening,” said the Advertiser. “Some gentlemen also favoured the company with a variety of songs, and were joined in the choruses by members of the band. The health of the chairman of the railway company was drunk with enthusiastic cheers as also of those other gentlemen of Yarm with whom the idea of this great undertaking originated, and to whose perseverance, in an early stage of the work, the public are so much indebted for the present greatly reduced price of coal.”

The new book is entitled The Yarm Branch, and it charts the short working life of the branchline which, overtaken by the march of technology, closed on October 23, 1872. The book is a joint venture between the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and the Cleveland Industrial Archaeological Society, and it will be launched in the New Inn – now the Cleveland Bay – at 6.30pm on Wednesday.

It is unlikely that any band will be performing appropriate airs during the evening or any gentlemen will favour those present with a variety of songs, but a model of the depot, built by Bill Ramage, will be on display and Chris Lloyd, who compiles these notes, will give a short talk on the Hole of Paradise. The evening begins at 6.3opm. The book will be available for £15 and it is also available from the Friends website sdr1825.org.uk

The Yarm branchline was primarily for transporting minerals like coal, but according to this advert in the Durham County Advertiser of October 14, 1826, "rapid, safe and cheap travelling" was available to humans by the Union, "the elegant new railway coach". The Union was a stagecoach converted to be run on rails. Its journey started at the Black Lion Hotel and the New Inn in Stockton, called at the New Inn at Yarm - now, of course, the Cleveland Bay - and it terminated at the Black Swan Inn, at Parkgate in Darlington. The Black Swan was about 100 yards from the Croft branchline of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and so was the closest point to the town centre that the early railway came. The Union was probably the only passenger coach that served the Yarm branchline. As this advert says that on October 19 and 20, when Yarm fair was held, "the Union will leave Darlington at six in the morning for Yarm and will leave Yarm fro Darlington again at six in the evening", it could be described as the world's first passenger railway timetable

From the late 1840s until the Second World War, the New Inn was called the Railway Inn. Yarm bridge was a favoured crossing point for drovers from the Highlands of Scotland as they headed onto the North York Moors and the Hambleton Drove Road. It is said that if they arrived on Yarm's market day, they were not allowed to cross the bridge into the town until all the local farmers had concluded their business. Consequently, the Scottish and Irish drovers held their cattle outside the Cleveland Bay, as is happening here, before they were given the all clear to cross the bridge

The Rookery in the Hole of Paradise

BEFORE anyone accuses us of inventing “the Hole of Paradise”, the term was widely used a decade or so ago when the fate of an amazing property called The Rookery was discussed.

For example, in 2007, The Northern Echo reported: “The Rookery lies within an area of land known as the Hole of Paradise. It is bounded on three sides by Urlay Nook Road, Yarm Road, and South View and forms part of Egglescliffe conservation area.”

The art deco Rookery was built in the mid 1930s apparently by a sea captain who wanted it to resemble a ship’s bridge. If that really is the case, rather than calling The Rookery, he should have gone for another corvid and named it “the crow’s nest”.

It sat above the coal depot in a large garden which developers began eyeing in the 1990s, much to local people’s dismay. One councillor described it as “probably the most iconic building in Eaglescliffe”.

Attempts were made to get English Heritage to list it, but although their inspectors agreed it” had a striking appearance and was an important example of an international architectural style”, it was not important enough to get any protection.

Numerous planning applications were submitted to demolish it and replace it with flats and houses until in 2013, it was argued that The Rookery had become so derelict it was no longer economically viable to repair it. It was, therefore, demolished in 2014 and its grounds and the coal depot in the Hole of Paradise were covered with apartments.