Geograph - photograph every grid square

This must be a very old Right of Way pre-dating the ICI complex built in the late 1940s. According to Link it is shown as a road on a 1857 map. It is still designated a Public Bridleway but largely overgrown and unused.


This website: Link (Archive Link ) says that "there was a railway track from the Upleatham mines to the steelworks, until the ironstone ceased to be produced; it then became a rough, ancient pathway from the nearby village of Wilton, to the Fleet end of Dormanstown, known as Meggits Lane." This contradicts the information on the Waggon Ways website. This shows a tram way from the Upleatham Mines (NZ6220) due north to join the Stockton and Darlington Railway at Ryehills Farm.

The Waggon Ways map does indicate a tramway from Kirkleatham Mine (NZ6018) but going parallel to Meggit's Lane (about half way across the field in this photo NZ5822 : Field Near Manor Farm).

Furthermore Dormanstown was not built until the 1920s and the lane is not on a direct route from Wilton village (NZ5819).

13 Sept 2014: A Mr. Dennis Hewitt has contacted me. He writes "You are right meggitt's Lane was there before D/town it was used by the people that lived in cottages at Wiley Brigg the tramway was the rail link from the mines to the blast furnaces that ran down what is now Brittania place The people of Wiley Brigg paid a penny to be dropped off near kirkleatham to go to church this information comes from two sources that lived the cottages Mrs,Caddy Mrs,Mitchell the latter my wife's grandmother."