Cumbria Railways Association Field Excursion 2007

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Another Day Afoot in Furness

Two years being considered a sufficient amount of recovery time after the last CRA Field Excursion, Alan Postlethwaite challenged CRA members to accompany Jonathan Wignall on a second foray around some of the remains of the tramways and engine beds of the Furness iron-ore field. The objective for Sunday 18th March 2007 was the Yarlside, Stank and Newton area. The several mines on Boulton Common were served by a branch line from the FR main line at Roose. During part of its life this route provided the setting for one of John Barraclough Fell's patent tramways. A mile to the east a separate line of rail ran from Parrock Hall to a separate group of iron mines near Stank. This branch which at one stage seemed destined to form part of a projected "Gleaston Loop" to the FR line east of Lindal, extended only as far as the North Stank and Goldhills Pits near Newton village. It appears, too, that some of the Yarlside ore workings were for a period in fact accessed by a rail link from the Stank branch.

In the event, the walk was conducted on one of the coldest, wettest, windiest days of the season. The lunch of hot soup and sandwiches provided at Newton Village Hall was most welcome. The photos below were taken during the odd sunny intervals in-between the hailstorms when the photographer managed to stand reasonably upright in the blasting wind.

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