FERRYHILL STATION is in a natural dip that is so deep that water collects in its carrs – the Prior of Durham, in centuries gone by, had a swannery done here to provide meat for his table, and his swankeeper lived in a property fashioned out of a cave in the side of the natural dip.
The dip runs south to north, and a medieval road ran west to east across it on a raised causeway.
The first railway to run through the dip was the Clarence, which opened in 1834, running north from Stockton, through Sedgefield towards Durham. It opened the first station in the dip in 1840, near the medieval road – now called High Street – which went over the tracks on a level crossing.
In 1844, the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway came through the dip, running parallel to the Clarence. The N&DJR was the forerunner of the East Coast Main Line, from York to Gateshead, which still whistles through the dip. It, too, had a station in the dip.
With quarries and collieries opening up, soon lines and sidings came to practically fill the dip. In 1876, the medieval road was swung slightly south to cross the tracks on a new bridge so the old level crossing could be closed.
By the 1920s, Ferryhill Station was said to have one of the busiest goods yards in Europe, and its tucked-away location, almost hidden from the Luftwaffe, made it a safe storage place during the Second World War.
All of which brings us to this postcard in Memories 430 which was taken by a brave photographer standing in the middle of the tracks looking west up the High Street.
Lots of people got in touch to say that we were wrong about the building nearest the camera. It was the stationmaster’s house, which was demolished in the 1960s. It looks elderly – did it date back to the Clarence Railway?
The Clarence and Northern Hotel was on the left hand side of the High Street – it, too, was demolished in the 1960s.
The high side of the dip that can be seen on the postcard is known locally as Rudds Hill and, as Memories 430 said, Brian McKerrell remembered in about 1942, a huge round concrete platform being hauled up it by soldiers.
George Patterson, of Bishop Auckland, grew up in Ferryhill Station and remembers that this platform was for a searchlight. Several people agreed, and suggested there might have been another light to the north in the Cleves Cross area – any information on searchlight locations would be most welcome.
Alan Blenkiron had another question about Rudds Hill. “Does anyone remember the big tin chapel that was up there in the 1940s, which later became Fred Haswell’s repair garage?”
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