REPORTS of the death of Darlington artist David Green in India have concentrated, quite rightly, on his skills as a drawer of nature.

Botanist and TV personality David Bellamy said: "His illustrations were second to none, but he was first and foremost a natural historian and one of the best."

Echo Memories knew a different side of David, as an industrial archaeologist.

He had painstakingly recorded the remains alongside the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). He traced the course of the1825 line from Haughton Road to the Whinnies Nature Reserve, in Middleton St George.

"The abundance of lime-loving plants in the reserve testifies to the high calcium phosphate content in the soil, which is due to the slag that was tipped there," he wrote.

Recent Echo Memories have told of the ironworks that created that slag.

On the west of the A66, David found 11 45cm square, two-hole stone sleepers lying by the trackbed.

"Although the S&DR line to the east of Darlington initially rested upon oak sleeper blocks to reduce costs, the entire route was relaid with these stone blocks in the early 1830s, and those on view undoubtedly date from this period," he wrote in his notes.

"The holes in stone sleepers were made to hold pins, nails or bolts which fitted through the metal baseplates, known as chairs, which in turn held the rail firmly."

He noted how the bankside in the Whinnies was littered with moss-covered concrete sleeper blocks.

"Some of these still have their iron chairs, which are marked '1900 NE'," he wrote. "Presumably, these were employed along the ironworks' sidings."

David was taken with the drain and culvert tunnels running under the line's embankment. He sketched a couple of Victorian tunnels near the old Paton and Baldwin factory. As well as channelling streams away from the rails, these were also used by the factory "to remove overflow from the wool conditioning and dyeing houses".

The best preserved of the tunnels he found was at the easterly entrance to the Whinnies. He measured it as 85cm high and 60cm wide, and built wholly of brick. Fortunately, he drew a picture of it, because when Echo Memories went out there last week - dressed in a suit and in the rain, so detailed investigation was not carried out - no sign could be seen of it. Perhaps the house-builders have filled it in since David was there in 2000.

He also investigated the coal depot behind the Fighting Cocks pub.

"There is an impressive, brick-capped sandstone wall which clearly shows the former positions of the coal bunker partitions," he wrote.

"To the east of the depot wall is a small, brick-built signalman's toolshed and toilet, while to the west lies the brick and concrete foundations, complete with metal base, of a hand-operated crane. This was built in the early 1900s to load up the railway wagons.

"Although its remains are obscured by brambles, a young though tall ash tree growing by its northern side, will help locate the crane."

Finally, David noted that as well as the discarded stone blocks and the disused brick culverts, the railway had left a living legacy.

"In all probability, many of the exotic trees and shrubs by the trackbed near Haughton Road, Red Hall and Middleton St George are survivors of the past railside introductions - why, even some of the apple trees may be descendants of plants which originated from cores once tossed out of the carriage windows!

Published: ??/??/2003

Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505062.