A hundred years ago Burnhope, isolated on a hill top, was a bustling mining village, the streets full of people, a tight knit community of miners and their families. Open cast coal extraction and eighty years of housing development has erased the past. Very little remains today of Burnhope’s mining heritage.
Burnhope had 5 pits, 12 drifts, numerous mine buildings, brick works, gas works, wagon way (the line), with Bank Top Engine House dragging coal wagons to Craghead and onto the staithes on the Tyne. The village had 20 shops and 30 amenities.
We are celebrating 30 heritage sites on 17 individual plaques spread around the village and surrounding countryside and 3 display boards, all with QR codes to access descriptions, photographs and history. There are four trails to view Burnhope’s heritage, which we’ve called:
No 2 and No 3 start form The Garage Bar and Grille
No 1 from the School and No 4 from Peth Bank Car Park
You can see the trails below (placeholder images at the moment – this is actually of Middle Earth, not Burnhope):
The second part of the trail looks like this (no it doesn’t):
You can find more information about the separate parts of the trail on the drop down menu at the top of this page.