Jubilee Walk

Welcome to a description of the Jubilee Walk around the grounds of the DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery at Aykley Heads in Durham City.
Opened in 2002, the walk takes you around the DLI's grounds, from an old colliery pond to one of the finest views of Durham City. History Originally part of the Crook Hall estate, the Aykley Heads site remained a patchwork of fields and rough pasture up to the middle of the nineteenth century.
Some of these old field boundaries still survive today.

In the 1880s, industry came to Aykley Heads, when a pit was sunk on the northern edge of the hill and a brick and tile works was built closer to the main railway line. This works, with its high chimney, used clay dug from the hillside. Both were linked by rough track to the main Framwellgate Road and there was also a railway spur joining the main line just above Durham railway station.

The pit remained open until just after the First World War, when the entire Framwellgate colliery system closed - its coal exhausted. At the same time, the brick works closed. In 1934, the pit reopened using the old shaft and a new steep drift but little coal was found. Finally in 1949, Aykley Heads pit closed - the last working colliery in Durham City - and the site fell into decay.

With the building of County Hall, the whole of Aykley Heads was transformed, with the site landscaped, hundreds of trees and shrubs planted and the pond built. Meanwhile plans were underway for a new building on the site - the DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery.

In the early 1960s, after their headquarters at Brancepeth Castle closed, the DLI began to look for a new home for its collection of medals, uniforms and Regimental treasures. Durham County Council then offered to build a new museum at Aykley Heads. Designed by Tarren & Caller of Newcastle, work began in 1965 on this ultra-modern building and on 22nd August 1969, Jennie Lee, then the first Minister for the Arts, officially opened the new building.

Today trees and shrubs hide much of the industrial past of Aykley Heads but it is still there. The road from the dual carriageway follows the original track into the site. Two large clay pits lie hidden on the slopes of the hill. And, whilst the capped pit shaft lies hidden in the trees at the entrance to the visitors' car park and the colliery buildings lie buried beneath the car park, the colliery pond is still there for all to see. This pond was used as the basis of the main part of the 'natural' pond you can see today.

Jubilee Walk Start of walk: The walk starts at the main entrance to the DLI, and follows twelve numbered wooden way markers. You might take a moment to look at the stone bearing the names of the 11 soldiers of The Durham Light Infantry who were awarded the Victoria Cross.

1: Walkers should go down across the grass slope towards the pond, and along the edge of the pond (take care with small children) to the wooden bridge.

The pond was once the old colliery pond but was extended during the landscaping of the site in the early 1960s. It is now home to many animals during the year - including moorhens, frogs, toads, dragonflies, pond skaters & whirligigs (small beetles that whirl around in circles on the pond's surface). The pond also provides a home for many interesting plants.

In summer, you will see water soldier growing near the stepping-stones. Other rare plants like variegated reed sweet-grass & sea club-rush thrive here, whilst you can also see in summer the pink flowers of the flowering-rush by the bridge.

Coal Measures The rocks that underlie the DLI site are traditionally called Coal Measures and are around 300 million years old. The rocks in the Coal Measures are mostly sandstone and mudstone with thin seams of coal. 300 million years ago, Durham was a very different world, with a hot, humid equatorial climate. The entire region was flat, low-lying and covered with swamp. Great rivers flowed through the area and periodically flooded, depositing sand and mud out across the surrounding plain. Now and again, thick tropical rainforests of primitive trees grew up and it is this vegetation, as it died and built up in the swamps, that formed the coal seams.

2: The next stage of the walk crosses the wooden bridge, goes up the steps & turns right on the path at the edge of the meadow. The trail follows this path along the edge of the meadow. The meadow was created in 1993, when it was seeded with wildflowers. Since then it has only been cut once a year in late summer. This allows the flowers to set seed and provides a haven for butterflies and other insects. Near the path hay rattle grows. This plant is a grass parasite and so allows other plants to thrive.

In late spring and summer, the meadow is a blaze of colour with creeping buttercup, white & red clover, selfheal, germander speedwell, common sorrel, lady's smock, daisy, hogweed & yarrow. You can also find some common spotted orchids & northern marsh orchids growing there.

3: You are then directed along the path above the stream. Do not go up the steps on the left but follow the path into the woods.

Most of the trees and shrubs on the walk were only planted in the early 1960s. The woods at Aykley Heads are home to many birds, including tree creepers, blue tits, robins, blackbirds, chaffinches, bullfinches, wrens, jays & magpies.

You may see also grey squirrels. In early spring, snowdrops thrive on the grassed slope just as the path enters the wood. Later daffodils appear in clumps throughout the woods.

4: Following the path out of the woods the walk then turns right and follows the edge of the woods climbing the grassy slope to the top. 5: At the top of the slope, walkers turn right and follow a new path into the woods. 6: Walking through the woods (take care as the path can be slippery after rain), follow the path down and out to join the rough track at the bottom.

Though the wood looks as though it has existed for 100 years, it was only planted as part of the landscaping in the 1960s. Trees growing here include hawthorn, alder, ash, beech, rowan & sycamore.

7: On joining the rough track the route turns right and passes a metal barrier. It then continues across the entrance of the visitors' car park (take care with children) to a grassed area on the other side.

The rough track was part of the Aykley Heads colliery. The capped shaft is in the small clump of trees on the left of the entrance to the car park. The car park has been built on the site of the colliery buildings.

8: Following a rough track up to the left, the path goes round another metal barrier and out into the grassland. The track is also a relic of the industrial past of the site and the large grassed area was once a clay pit for the brick and tile works.

9: Next the walk turns right, up the grassy slope (can be very wet) and towards the wood.

10: Walkers should follow a new path right into the wood (keep to the path as this wood is full of dangerous hollows and loose material) The hill - which dominates the DLI's grounds - is often called a "pit heap" but is, in fact, an original structure of glacial sands and clay. However, over the last hundred years it has been used as a dump for colliery waste, domestic rubbish and spoil from the building of the dual carriageway and County Hall. 11: At the edge of the wood, the trail turns left up the grassy slope to the top of the hill. At the top, walkers can enjoy the wonderful view of Durham. Durham Cathedral dominates the view. Started in 1093, this Cathedral is one of the finest buildings in England. In 1986, the Cathedral and Castle were awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. To the right, Wharton Park, St Cuthbert's Church and the Observatory's obelisk can be seen. To the left is a view across Gilesgate to the East Durham Magnesian Limestone escarpment in the distance. Looking backwards from this point it is possible to see County Hall and the rest of the Aykley Heads site.

Quaternary

In the last 2 million years, there have been a number of ice ages, when temperatures have fallen and icesheets have flowed across the Durham landscape. When ice melted, it released huge amounts of water which cut deep river valleys and deposited extensive sand and gravel deposits. The area around the DLI is covered be a sheet of sand and gravel that was deposited at the end of the ice age. Since then small streams have cut into this soft sand and gravel and have created today's landscape around the DLI.

12: Finally the walk turns down hill towards County Hall and then follow the grassy path towards the pond and the road below (take care as the path can be very slippery after rain).

Wild flowers that have colonised this area - lady's mantle, cow parsley, rosebay willowherb, bitter-vetch, creeping cinquefoil, meadow buttercup, sheep's sorrel, ragwort & coltsfoot - can be enjoyed on the way down the hill.

Permian Rocks of Permian age were laid down in this area around 250 million years ago. The first set of rocks to be laid down were called the Yellow Sands. This thin sandstone (up to 15m thick) formed in a desert, as undulating dunes. The rest of the Permian rocks which cover the area to the coast, were deposited in a huge ocean that stretched as far as Russia. The rock type that we see today is called dolomite, a special type of limestone which has a distinct buff brown colour. In between the layers of dolomite, there are beds of salt which were deposited during phases when the ancient ocean completely dried up. The Permian Escarpment forms a distinct steep ridge to the east of Durham City. It is the result of the contrast in hardness of the underlying soft Yellow Sands and the overlying hard dolomite (See fig 1). Durham was one of the first coal fields in the UK where deep mining was employed to win coal. In the early 1800's, William Smith 'The Father of English Geology' visited the area to look at the coal mines. He advised local coal miners to sink pits through the Permian rocks in East Durham, where he predicted that they would find coal. Of course they did, and the Durham Coalfield was therefore extended to the East, with the last mines being built right on the coast and mining the coal that went beneath the Permian rocks and out under the North Sea.

Fig 1. Permian Escarpment formed from upper hard layer of Dolomite (brick pattern), overlaying the very soft sandstone of the Yellow Sands (dotted pattern). Deep coal mine can be seen with a shaft going down through the Permian into the underlying Coal Measures (Thick horizontal line pattern).

End of walk:
At the bottom of the hill the walk goes down the steps across the road (take great care), and around the pond, back to the DLI. Why not make time for refreshments in the DLI's cafe?

Further Information for Visitors

• The walk takes between 30 - 60 minutes, depending on what you see and do on the way.
• There are 12 numbered wooden way markers to help you find your way around.
• Walkers should wear sensible shoes - some of the paths are quite steep and can be slippery after rain.
• Take care, especially with small children, by the pond (deep water) & near the roads.
• Please note that these footpaths are permissive routes only and are not public rights of way.

Click here to see a map of the Jubilee Walk.

Click here to see a location map of the DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery.