Comments on: Rookhope: A Reminder of Who We Are

By: McEff

McEff — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:33:14 +0000

Hi Tracey. That’s the trouble. There’s so much to see. We’re spoilt for choice really.
Cheers, Alen

By: Tracey

Tracey — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:09:45 +0000

Fascinating! I think I may just visit myself, if I can find a way of squeezing it in.

By: McEff

McEff — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:51:47 +0000

Hi Colin. History’s always interesting ??? even if it’s just a tumbled wall on an empty moor. It was put there by someone and for a reason. And there are plenty of tumbled walls so there’s plenty to look at.
Cheers, Alen

By: colingriffithsol

colingriffithsol — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 09:31:45 +0000

Very good! I always loose a sense of time wandering around places like this exploring the past’s remnants.

By: McEff

McEff — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:36:29 +0000

Hi Alex. I used to work in a Cumbrian slate quarry and the view from the tips, or the batteries as they were called, were as good as views get. Must go back there and take some pictures sometime.
I know Ebchester. It’s just over the fell from Rookhope on the other side of Consett. I don’t know the area well so I might take a walk up there sometime.
Cheers, Alen

By: Scotlands Mountains

Scotlands Mountains — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:02:58 +0000

Living in an old pit managers house myself I kinda like places like that Alen :) Some of the old pit bings in the Central Belt have better views than many a hill in fact.!
My only relative living in England , a cousin.lives not far from here in Ebchester.

By: McEff

McEff — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:55:17 +0000

Hi David. That’s interesting. I shall look out for your post. I have just glanced at the Mercury website to read the story but it’s not up there yet (so much for the internet and 24-hour-a-day news being the future for newspapers. Sorry, that’s me being cynical).
It does not surprise me, what with soaring metal prices and improved extraction methods, that interest in the Pennines is stirring again. When I was researching this piece I came across something about interest being revived in Grove Rake back in 2008, but that was at the start of the financial crisis and nothing appears to have come of it. Any development would have to comply with strict planning laws, one would assume.
Fracking is much more controversial. From what I understand it involves fracturing gas-bearing rocks with high-pressure fluids and gels to force the gas to migrate. Wasn’t there a series of mini-earthquakes linked to fracking near Blackpool? Hope you’re insured for earthquakes up there in Teesdale, David.
Cheers, Alen

By: David

David — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:21:29 +0000

Great post Alen. Some smashing pics of our industrial heritage too.

I have mixed feelings about such places. On the one hand they have damaged the environment and in some cases still continue to do so. On the other they have provided some kind of living for folk – and in the case of say Killhope still continue to do so, although not in a way that the people who worked there would have ever envisaged.

Funnily enough I had just completed a blog entry to upload later that touches very briefly on the dales past/present economy. Nothing in detail as such, only the fact I have just read in the Teesdale Mercury (05/12/12 that some companies are interested in starting to get at some of the deep lead/zinc mineral deposits that remain in Weadale, Teesdale and elsewhere. They also mention that the government is actually looking to these dales as a place to start shale gas extraction – “fracking” which has proved so controversial over near Blackpool. The human story of these valleys is still being written.

By: McEff

McEff — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:42:33 +0000

Hi Jeanne. That’s an interesting piece by Jules. Scary as well, when you think you’re somewhere peaceful and suddenly there’s a hydrogen bomb in your midst. Makes you wonder what other things have taken place in the name of national security that we don’t know about.
I’d never heard of Zuni Salt Lake before I read this. Fascinating to learn about the local tribes harvesting the salt and the lake being their holy place.
Cheers now, ALen

By: mandala56

mandala56 — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:07:53 +0000

I really enjoyed this post. The pictures are fabulous, and I now recognize a railroad goods wagon when I see one!
This actually reminded me of Zuni Salt Lake in some ways. I have only been there once (hopped the fence with Old Jules) but the abandoned buildings, the lake with the secondary cone in it, and the deserted atmosphere stay with me.
http://sofarfromheaven.com/tag/zuni-salt-lake/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuni_Salt_Lake