On the last Sunday in June some of the Wear Valley Writers
met at Harehope Quarry near Frosterley for a literary walk that would offer inspiration
for our writing. We were led by one of our own group.
(See below.)
On Sunday July 28 at 2pm, another of our members will lead us
round Vinovium, the Roman site on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland. He is a
volunteer there and very knowledgeable about the site, so we look forward to an
informative afternoon.
If you are a writer and interested in this idea you are welcome to join us.
The following report recorded my impressions of the day.
A tangled mass of leaves - every shade and every shape -
hide the gurgling stream that is Bollihope Burn so very far below. The narrow river, brown as the earth, ripples
peacefully between ancient stones for all the world as though it wasn’t hidden
deep, deep down below the level of the path.
There is no sound from the nearby caravan park and the sun
is behind a cloud. We are in a separate world where green hills surround us
with remote farmhouses dotting their sides, stone-built and strong against the
Weardale weather.
And so we start to walk, glad of our collars to pull up against the cold wind – uphill at first on an easy tarmac
path then turning to a narrow track.
Wild flowers are everywhere; pink and white Clover; Vetch; Ladies
Fingers; Marguerites and grasses; Thistles and Star of Bethlehem. May blossom
is in the hedges with the gentle hum of bees all round it. Silent sheep move in one field and brown and
white cattle graze in another.
But it all changes as we clamber down uneven steps to a
gorge and a dry-stone riverbed where the burn flows underneath the surface, appearing only in the harshest of
winters. It is the result of weathering
of the limestone. There are potholes and caves and resurgent streams – Karst scenery an information board
explains.
As if to compensate for this harshness a square block of
Frosterley Marble sits beyond the bridge, its fossil-rich limestone is 310
million years old. Sprinkle water on to
it and see the mass of fish and strange creatures that are trapped inside.
From there we walk on to the viewing post and look out at
the Quarry where men toiled their lives away in all weathers. We see the twenty layers of Rock they worked
on, each one named; The Yard Post; the Whalley; Thick Cockle Beds; Thin Cockle
Beds; Elsie; Dun Kits Bastard and so on. Nowadays there is peace and silence
and we gaze out at the burn, framed by green trees and flowing to the distant
hills.
As we clamber back to the footpath the breeze is lighter,
the path downhill and the sun is warming the stone of the farmhouses high on
the distant hills.
