Re Sarahs Summer Walk – This is still possible starting from Billingham Ecology park, over the 99 steps, under the new A 19 subway (in wet weather, this section can be muddy), below Gravel-Hole Farm, round the grass and over-grown Slag-tip, where Big-Ben was cast in 1856, a scene unchanged for the last 100 years, with only a very distant hum of traffic, past Calf-fallow Farm, now “Daisy-Chain” respite home, across the 1834 railway line to the “Norton Tavern”, which has an excellent display of Norton Railway and the Village photos on its walls,up Station Road to The Green
I vaguely recall what I thought of as a long family walk on a hot summer day in (I think) 1969. Three generations of Sheratons took just such a leisurely, calm, walk, as you describe Bob. My Dad talked of the “99 steps” and I remember we ended up walking past The Station pub on Station Road. Everyone in the family was thirsty but it was decided that we wouldn”t go in because I couldn”t join them. I was only 8. In those days, no children went into pubs. I think we may have walked the “99 steps/Calf Fallow Lane/Norton Station” route you “speak” of above. I vividly remember when we arrived at the other end of Station Road we walked along the road straight across to Norton Green. There were roadworks everywhere because the Ring Road was just being built and hadn”t opened yet. 🙂
This was one of the wonderful walks from Norton Green to Billingham ,it now seems strange that families would walk to Billingham or via the “mill leet” path to the 99 steps,Calf- Fallow and Norton Station. Im not digging into the long distant past, I remember taking my family in the 1950s on this Sunday walk, with the smell of grass, the fields of buttercup and cow-slips, watching the stickle-back in the beck alongside the path, the children “fishing” with nylon stocking nets on bamboo cane, and a jam-jar for carrying home any catch (though most finished in the Duck-Pond. The peace and quiet, with the sound of a distant train whistle, sitting on grass bank near the “Slag-Tips” for a flask of tea or lemonade, eating cheese sandwiches while small birds darted for thrown crumbs. Is it nostalgia or were all those days bright and sunny, be it country walks or seaside trips ??
Re Sarahs Summer Walk – This is still possible starting from Billingham Ecology park, over the 99 steps, under the new A 19 subway (in wet weather, this section can be muddy), below Gravel-Hole Farm, round the grass and over-grown Slag-tip, where Big-Ben was cast in 1856, a scene unchanged for the last 100 years, with only a very distant hum of traffic, past Calf-fallow Farm, now “Daisy-Chain” respite home, across the 1834 railway line to the “Norton Tavern”, which has an excellent display of Norton Railway and the Village photos on its walls,up Station Road to The Green
I vaguely recall what I thought of as a long family walk on a hot summer day in (I think) 1969. Three generations of Sheratons took just such a leisurely, calm, walk, as you describe Bob. My Dad talked of the “99 steps” and I remember we ended up walking past The Station pub on Station Road. Everyone in the family was thirsty but it was decided that we wouldn”t go in because I couldn”t join them. I was only 8. In those days, no children went into pubs. I think we may have walked the “99 steps/Calf Fallow Lane/Norton Station” route you “speak” of above. I vividly remember when we arrived at the other end of Station Road we walked along the road straight across to Norton Green. There were roadworks everywhere because the Ring Road was just being built and hadn”t opened yet. 🙂
This was one of the wonderful walks from Norton Green to Billingham ,it now seems strange that families would walk to Billingham or via the “mill leet” path to the 99 steps,Calf- Fallow and Norton Station. Im not digging into the long distant past, I remember taking my family in the 1950s on this Sunday walk, with the smell of grass, the fields of buttercup and cow-slips, watching the stickle-back in the beck alongside the path, the children “fishing” with nylon stocking nets on bamboo cane, and a jam-jar for carrying home any catch (though most finished in the Duck-Pond. The peace and quiet, with the sound of a distant train whistle, sitting on grass bank near the “Slag-Tips” for a flask of tea or lemonade, eating cheese sandwiches while small birds darted for thrown crumbs. Is it nostalgia or were all those days bright and sunny, be it country walks or seaside trips ??