In 1828 the Clarence Railway was founded by Mr. Christopher Tennent, to provide a shorter route from the coalfields to the Tees.  It ran from a junction with the Stockton and Darlington at Heighington to Samphire Batts (now Port Clarence) and had a branch through Norton to the river at North Shore in Stockton.  It was nearly eight miles shorter, but was never profitable because of the rental charged on the Stockton and Darlington line to the pits.  In 1884 the Company was leased in perpetuity to, and then taken over by the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway.

It is hard today to picture what life was like in an age without modern transport systems. Can you imagine how you would get around without a car or public transport? Transport would have been somewhat slow.  Coal that was needed for family’s homes in Stockton was carried first on the backs of packhorses.  It was hoofed over the hills of county Durham to the towns, and also to the sea for export.  As the roads got better the coal was transferred to carts, which the horses had to pull.  A horse may pull 1 ton of coal up to 9 or 10 miles a day!

To cover the cost of the carter’s wages, the maintenance of the carts, the purchase and keep of the horses and the tolls paid at the turnpike gates, the coal had to be sold in the towns at as much as three times the pithead price.