Weardale Way Section 13 (Mount Pleasant to Deptford)
Introduction
Section 13 of the Weardale Way starts from the riverside at the end of Beatrice Terrace, by Mount Pleasant Park and finishes at the southern end of Queen Alexandra Bridge in Deptford. This section lies entirely within the administrative area of City of Sunderland in the ceremonial county of Tyne & Wear. For the most part, it’s a relatively easy, sheltered walk on a good trail alongside the now tidal River Wear. There are exceptions on all counts however, such as Offerton Haugh, which is very exposed, and the final climb around Claxheugh Rock which is steep and potentially muddy. Elsewhere there are muddy patches that persist even in dry weather.
Stats at a Glance
Distance 9.9 km/6.1 miles | Elevation Gain 98 m/323 ft | Maximum Elevation 42 m/136 ft (Pallion) | Going Generally firm with potentially wet, muddy sections on trails, roads and tracks through woodland, parkland, urban, farmland | Exposure Fairly sheltered with some exposed stretches | Navigation (OS Maps Explorer 308; Landranger 88); GPS File | Hospitality & Supplies Fatfield (PH); Pallion (Ca; RS); Sunderland (All) [0.5 km] | Start Beatrice Terrace, Mount Pleasant NZ 314540 (w3w: order.turkey.knots) | Finish Queen Alexandra Bridge, Deptford NZ 382575 (w3w: curiosity.move.ducks) | Grade Moderate | GALLERY
Trail Updates
The following updates have been published by The Durham Cow for this section: 120525
Description
If you don’t choose to step off the trail in favour of Mount Pleasant Park’s ornamental lake, the first site that will grab your attention will be the graceful arch of Victoria Viaduct, a railway viaduct hurriedly completed in 1838 to mark Queen Victoria’s coronation. It carried the Durham Junction Railway and is based on a Roman bridge in Alcantara, Spain. Beyond the viaduct, opening onto the trail, are a couple of tunnels that linked sandstone quarries, in what’s known as the Grindstone Post, to long-gone staithes on the riverside.
In Cox Green, apart from the Oddfellows Arms pub, you’ll find the Alice Well (the well was the village’s only fresh water supply before WWII). The footbridge offers the final opportunity to cross the river (if you wanted to visit Washington Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre for example) until the Northern Spire Bridge. It’s about as far up river as pleasure craft get and where the few resident boats are a reminder of times when the village was a hub for the early coal trade and boasted a substantial boat-building industry.
The route continues along the river, climbing steeply through riparian woodland past Wearside Golf Club – opposite the aforementioned Wildfowl Centre – before arriving on a gently shelving floodplain known as Offerton Haugh (‘haugh’ is from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘flat ground alongside a river’). In March 1644 – during the War of the Three Kingdoms (English Civil War) – an inconclusive engagement referred to as the ‘Offerton Skirmish’ took place between Scottish forces allied to Parliament and Royalists on the high ground to the south.
Beyond the haugh the trail becomes more rugged as it passes through woodland approaching Stony Heugh (not to be confused with ‘haugh’, a ‘heugh’ is from the Anglo-Saxon for a ‘steep hill or cliff’) before joining an access road at White Heugh Cottages. Hylton Bridge, towering overhead, carries the A19 trunk road. By the time it was built in the 1970s the ferry which operated between South Hylton and North Hylton had been closed some 20 years. In years gone by, North Hylton had been a centre for various industries including ship-building, a nod to which is given by the decaying hulks still lying in the mud alongside the village today.
Since 2018, the Northern Spire Bridge has dominated the river from this point of the trail near the watersports centre. Now having to compete for attention is Claxheugh Rock, possibly the most dramatic exposure of the East Durham Limestone Plateau – part of a huge Permian reef stretching across Northern Europe and on which Sunderland is built. Between 1838 and 1971, the Ford Paper Mill operated in the grassy space at the bottom of the cliff.
It’s a quite a challenging ascent around the shoulder of Claxheugh Rock, stiff enough to give the section a ‘moderate’ rating in my opinion. The final mile on European Way to Queen Alexandra Bridge is much easier however. On this stretch through Pallion, where shipyards once populated the area now given over to retail outlets, you might get a sense that things are changing, that the environment is being re-imagined and rebuilt. I’ve certainly witnessed a great deal change, not only in my life time but in the last ten years. I don’t doubt that there’s more to come, which may continue to affect the Weardale Way.