Skerne River: Discover Brightwater Project

Phil Wilson Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

I want to take this time to talk about a heritage and environmental project in my constituency that will over the next few years restore, reveal and celebrate life along the River Skerne. The river flows through the length of my constituency before reaching the River Tees at Hurworth Place after flowing through Darlington. Unlike the vast majority of rivers, it flows inland instead of running to the sea. The Skerne is not widely known, except perhaps to local people. It is not the Thames, the Wear, the Tees or the Tyne, and it is not the Severn or the Tweed. In parts it resembles a stream and can be seen in geographical terms as a tributary of the Tees, but the Skerne’s significance can be measured in other ways.

The Skerne is the only river to appear on the back of a five-pound note. The note in question was issued in 1993 to celebrate the success of the railway pioneer George Stephenson and includes an image of Locomotion No. 1 travelling across the Skerne bridge over the river. The bridge is almost 200 years old and is the oldest continuously used railway bridge in the world. Historic England called the bridge irreplaceable, along with the Angel of the North and Holy Island off Lindisfarne. The bridge is in the neighbouring constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Jenny Chapman), but the early trains that crossed the Skerne at this point first travelled from Heighington Crossing in my constituency of Sedgefield, of which more later.

That link to the industrial revolution is the reason why the Discover Brightwater project is necessary. The project is a £3.3 million landscape partnership programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. To date, about £7.6 billion has been spent on improving landscapes and preserving heritage in programmes like this around the country. The Discover Brightwater project focuses on improving the natural and cultural environment endeavours to work with community groups to discover and reveal the history of the area, improve existing environments and create new nature reserves for the benefit of wildlife and land users. The Brightwater partnership includes Durham Wildlife Trust, Durham County Council, Darlington Borough Council, the Environment Agency, the Tees River Trust, the local access forum, and the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland—known as “Arch & Arch”.

“Skerne” is an ancient word, which is believed to originate from the old Norse word “skir” meaning “bright” and “clean”, hence the name of the Discover Brightwater project. Many years ago, the Skerne was full of fens and wetlands, hence the name of my constituency and the nearest town of Sedgefield. The wetlands still exist in part, but land has been reclaimed for farming since the start of the industrial revolution and water was pumped away due to the growth of the coal industry. Experts believe that the water table fell by as much as 70 metres, so the fens and wetlands are not what they used to be. Names of ancient settlements reveal what the area was like centuries ago. The name Sedgefield is a case in point, as is Bradbury and the Isle, Great Isle farm, and the term “carr” meaning a boggy area or wood in old Norse, which is why we have Preston Carr and Mordon Carr.

The Brightwater Project is important because it wants to manage the local environment and restore the Skerne to some of its past glory. There are plans to create fenland covering 50 acres, which would include the existing Bishop fen near Bishop Middleham and Hardwick Park, and the Woodham fen near Newton Aycliffe. The idea behind creating a managed fen is to spread biodiversity, mitigate climate change and attract tourism. There is also a potential plan to significantly increase the size of the fen to create a Great North fen. Since the end of the industrial revolution and the coal-mining era, the landscape has wanted to return to the way it once was, and that should be allowed to happen, but obviously in a managed way that has the support of landowners, Government agencies and local people. The project is not only about the past. It is about the present and revealing the natural environment and heritage for residents living in this part of south-east Durham, and it is about the future. It is about making south-east Durham a place to visit. There is so much to see and enjoy but, at present, so much remains hidden, with so many stories untold.

Let me take the House on a journey along the 25 miles of the river, which finds its source near Trimdon, the village where I was brought up, and then flows inland to Hurworth Place, which is also in my constituency and is where the Skerne enters the River Tees. The River Skerne starts in the magnesium limestone escarpment between Trimdon and Trimdon Grange in the north of my constituency, just a few hundred metres from the 12th-century St Mary Magdalene church on Trimdon village green, which is the spot where my predecessor, Tony Blair, made his “people’s princess” speech in 1997 following the tragic death of Diana.

During the 19th century, the population of Trimdon expanded rapidly with the opening of the colliery. The importance of the industry to the area helped turn the Skerne from a bright water to the seventh most polluted river in Europe by the 1970s. That is why the Discover Brightwater project is vital to bringing the river back to its former beauty.

The Trimdons grew from the coal industry and supplied the industrial revolution, with collieries at Trimdon Grange, where a pit disaster in 1882 killed 74 men and boys, and at Trimdon and Deaf Hill, as well as a foundry at a place called, strangely enough, Trimdon Foundry.

From there, the River Skerne flows to the east and Hurworth Burn reservoir before meandering south-west, where it enters fertile fields and farmland. The river flows between the village of Fishburn and the market town of Sedgefield. Fishburn is where my mother was born, and my father worked down Fishburn colliery from the ’40s until its closure in 1973. A coke works also operated in the village from 1919 to ’86.

At their peak, the collieries in the Skerne river area —at the Trimdons, Deaf Hill, Fishburn, Dean Bank, Bishop Middleham and Mainsforth—employed almost 10,000 people. Again, the growth of the villages led to pollution of the river, and phosphates used by local farmers washed from the farmland into the river, causing further pollution.

On the opposite bank from the old colliery is the north-east technology park—NETPark—which is one of the country’s premier science, engineering and technology parks for the commercialisation of cutting-edge research and development. It is home to 32 innovative companies, providing over 450 highly skilled jobs. By 2025, NETPark will be not only the destination of choice but the destination of necessity for universities and blue chip companies.

This area on the banks of the Skerne has the remains of a once great industry on one side and flourishing future industries on the other. It is the centre of the constituency.

As part of the Discover Brightwater project, there have been archaeological digs involving 126 dedicated volunteers on the outskirts of Sedgefield, where remains of a Roman village and pottery have been discovered—the first Roman pottery to be discovered in the north-east. The Discover Brightwater team has been working with DigVentures of Barnard Castle at the East Park Roman site in Sedgefield and at the ruins of the Bishop’s castle in Bishop Middleham a couple of miles away. The discovery of further structures at the site of the Bishop’s castle, which was used by the bishops of Durham, has led archaeologists to believe there were once more substantial buildings than previously thought. This is making archaeologists think again about what was originally at the site of the castle.

From Bishop Middleham and Sedgefield, the Skerne flows through Bradbury and the Isle, an area of wetland through which the A1(M) and the east coast main line travel between Durham and Darlington. It is the geographic heart of my constituency. Because of the wetland, the motorway actually floats on the land.

From there, the Skerne travels past Newton Aycliffe and through Ketton, an ancient area of my constituency that is a broad valley created by the small Skerne river. One feature of the Ketton landscape is a 17th-century packhorse bridge, which stands alone because centuries ago farmers straightened the river, moving its flow from under the bridge. It stands alone as a listed structure. There is written evidence of a bridge at the site since 1294.

The area is also famous for the Durham ox, a massive beast that in 1810 sold for £1,000 and weighed 271 stone. It was a bit of a celebrity in its day and travelled 3,000 miles around the country to be exhibited.

The Discover Brightwater project has improved the River Skerne in the Ketton area from Aycliffe to Skerningham, with the help of volunteers and local communities. The project also wants to improve access to Ketton Valley, so that people can enjoy the beauty of the landscape and the heritage of the Skerne and learn of the many local historical stories that go unheard.

From Ketton, we reach Newton Aycliffe, which is the largest conurbation in my constituency. It is a new town with a population of around 28,000 people, and is home to the Discover Brightwater headquarters. Newton Aycliffe business park is the biggest in the north-east of England, with 10,000 to 12,000 employees.

Newton Aycliffe also played a crucial part during the second world war. It was the site of a Royal Ordnance factory known as ROF Aycliffe. Opened in 1941, at a cost of £7 million, the munitions factory was home to the famous Aycliffe Angels, one of whom was my grandmother. The 17,000 strong workforce of almost entirely female employees worked around the clock turning out 700 million bullets, as well as shells and mines for the allied war effort. Their work was dangerous, with numerous accidents and deaths at the factory, including one explosion that killed eight girls. However, those incidents went unrecorded and unacknowledged because of the secrecy of the site. The Aycliffe Angels finally received the recognition they deserved for their commitment and bravery in 2000, with a memorial service and a permanent memorial, which now rests in Newton Aycliffe town centre.

However, the factory’s essential and invaluable work produced pollutants that ended up in the Skerne.

On the very edge of the business park sits Heighington Crossing and beside it a building that was once a pub called the Locomotion, now closed for several years. The pub was called the Locomotion to commemorate the fact that it was at Heighington Crossing in September 1825 that George Stephenson assembled Locomotion No. 1 to enter service on the Stockton and Darlington railway. The route would eventually take the latest invention on the Skerne bridge over the Skerne river, marking the start of the railway age, which would eventually be celebrated on the reverse of the £5 note. The pub the Locomotion is the original ticket office and waiting room. The original very short platform is still there today, and the route of the railway line from Heighington down into Darlington is still used.

On the other side of the railway line, Hitachi has built its new train manufacturing facility. From the original Locomotion No. 1 to the latest high-speed intercity Azuma train, train manufacturing has come full circle, back to the birthplace of the railways.

The length of the River Skerne is steeped in history. Much of it might be unknown, but the Brightwater project provides the opportunity for that history to be known. It also provides the opportunity for the river to return to its original meaning of “bright water”. There are signs of that happening, with sightings of otters and trout in parts of the river where they have not been seen for a long time.

After decades of the industrial revolution, the landscape is starting to return to how it once was. Obviously, that process must be managed. However, the benefits of such a project speak for themselves: biodiversity, the mitigation of climate change, the potential for tourism, the preservation of our heritage, with benefits for the local area and the country and the coming together of our communities as Brightwater engages with them. The Skerne has perhaps been neglected for centuries, but it could now be about to tell its story again. I wish the Discover Brightwater project the best of luck in its endeavour.