100 BRITISH BUS ROUTES: ROUTE 47
Shotley Bridge Hospital - Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Red Kite Ranger
12 November 2022
ABOVE: Go North East 6047 (NK12 GCY), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, on route 47 at Mill Road in Chopwell, Tyne & Wear. All pictures in this article were taken on Monday 9th May 2022 unless otherwise stated.
Operator: Go North East
Runs: Daily - no late evening service between Blackhill Mill and Shotley Bridge Hospital
Weekday frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 6 buses
Off-peak journey time: 82-88 minutes
Estimated route length: 17-18 miles
"When the kite builds, look to your lesser linen", said Shakespeare in A Winter's Tale; a reference to the fact that Red Kite birds reportedly have a magpie-like tendency to steal things, such as washing off the line, to decorate their nests.
Here in the Derwent Valley, where the River Derwent marks the traditional county boundary between Durham and Northumberland, Red Kites were reintroduced between 2004 & 2006.
There’s now a Red Kite Trail – eleven miles long in two sections. The descriptions of these imply one easy section (“level, well-surfaced paths”) and one less-easy one (“some steep, uneven paths, with some steps and stiles”).
But Go North East has its own trail - the Red Kite Ranger service 47 from Consett to Newcastle. There are no steep, uneven paths or stiles, but there are steps – 10 in all (one to get onto the bus and another nine to get to the top deck)! Oh, and another 10 at the end of the journey, I suppose.
Operator: Go North East
Runs: Daily - no late evening service between Blackhill Mill and Shotley Bridge Hospital
Weekday frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 6 buses
Off-peak journey time: 82-88 minutes
Estimated route length: 17-18 miles
"When the kite builds, look to your lesser linen", said Shakespeare in A Winter's Tale; a reference to the fact that Red Kite birds reportedly have a magpie-like tendency to steal things, such as washing off the line, to decorate their nests.
Here in the Derwent Valley, where the River Derwent marks the traditional county boundary between Durham and Northumberland, Red Kites were reintroduced between 2004 & 2006.
There’s now a Red Kite Trail – eleven miles long in two sections. The descriptions of these imply one easy section (“level, well-surfaced paths”) and one less-easy one (“some steep, uneven paths, with some steps and stiles”).
But Go North East has its own trail - the Red Kite Ranger service 47 from Consett to Newcastle. There are no steep, uneven paths or stiles, but there are steps – 10 in all (one to get onto the bus and another nine to get to the top deck)! Oh, and another 10 at the end of the journey, I suppose.
Things have already changed a bit since my visit in the Spring. There used to be two variations of the route – 47 & 47A – and both started in Consett. The 47A went via Bradley Bungalows and Medomsley Bridge, whilst the 47 went via Shotley Bridge Hospital.
Nowadays, Consett isn’t the terminus. Buses, all now numbered 47, start at Shotley Bridge Hospital, and first head broadly south, undertaking a counter-intuitive (for an otherwise fairly direct route), almost S-shaped routing from the Hospital into Consett, before heading back out again through Bridgehill and Shotley Grove (new territory for this route), and back to Shotley Bridge village (which was once the heart of Britain's sword making industry, apparently).
At this point buses are about three-quarters of a mile from the hospital, but the journey has taken about 23 minutes and covered what I estimate to be three miles or more.
That's not even the closest point. If you miss a bus at The Cricketers stop on the Durham Road, you have about 14 minutes for a leisurely stroll down Laburnum Avenue, to pick up the service at the Rose and Crown PH stop on Park Road. It’s about a third of a mile's walk.
On my visit, when the Hospital was somewhere the bus passed through rather than the terminating point, I noted how tight the bus stop was – very little manoeuvring space. The positive point was that the entrance to the Hospital was right beside the stop, which isn’t always the case at hospitals.
Shotley Bridge Hospital, with the bus stop in the centre, to the right of the entrance. It’s pretty tight to pull off the bus stop and turn right, due to the parked cars there.
This first stetch is mainly residential. But it’s hilly, and many of the houses nestle on high points, with decent views of the green fields and valleys beyond.
Looking down The Briary in Shotley Bridge, on a section of route that is no longer served by the 47.
I’m boarding at Consett Bus Station. It does what it needs to do in providing seats, shelter and warmth (and toilets), but it’s functional rather than spectacular. There’s a long line of vehicles parked up that have just come in off school services. Most of them are ex-London vehicles.
After the School Run: Ten Volvo Wright Eclipse Gemini 2s are parked up at Consett Bus Station, including, from left: 6069 (NK62 CZA), a B5LH, 6043 (NK12 GCO), a B9TL, and 6916 (LX06 EBZ), 6909 (LX06 EBL) and 6910 (LX06 EBM), all of which are B7TLs. Five more ex-London B7TLs complete the line-up. Note that 6043 is in Red Kite livery, and will be the bus that takes me to Newcastle.
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The 0930 departure, a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, is already on the stand at 0918, and the display is already set for Newcastle. But what’s this? An engineer arrives in a van (which he parks in the next bay) and starts looking under the engine cover at the back of the bus. He keeps popping to the cab and back to the engine…
A second engineer arrives, and drives the bus away from the stand, onto the parking area at the back of the bus station. Then he brings a similar vehicle forward onto the stand. He and his colleague both jump into their van and drive away.
Then the driver turns up – possibly completely oblivious to the substitution that has just taken place!
The 0930 departure, a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, is already on the stand at 0918, and the display is already set for Newcastle. But what’s this? An engineer arrives in a van (which he parks in the next bay) and starts looking under the engine cover at the back of the bus. He keeps popping to the cab and back to the engine…
A second engineer arrives, and drives the bus away from the stand, onto the parking area at the back of the bus station. Then he brings a similar vehicle forward onto the stand. He and his colleague both jump into their van and drive away.
Then the driver turns up – possibly completely oblivious to the substitution that has just taken place!
A view down Queen’s Road, Blackhill, on the way to Shotley Bridge Hospital. At the time of my journey, this was the direction for Consett, but one now needs to cross the road, as buses for Consett now run from the other side.
There are lots of protest signs around Consett to “stop the incinerator”. I gather that a planning application has been made for an incinerator to be built on a former steelworks site in the town. It’s since been subject to a Public Inquiry after a planning application was rejected by the County Council.
Once all of the twisting and turning around Consett and Shotley Bridge have come and gone, the 47 is quite a straight-forward route, heading broadly north-eastwards towards Newcastle. We’re well into the countryside now.
Heading down Ebchester Hill, towards the village of Ebchester itself, on a section of road no longer used by the 47.
The first place of note after Shotley Bridge is the village of Ebchester; a name possibly drawn from an Old English name, Ebba, and Chester, the Old English word for a Roman fortification (source: Wikipedia).
Wikipedia, when not asking for money, tells us that Æbbe was the daughter of Æthelfrith, King of Bernicia (a Kingdom covering South East Scotland and North East England). Æbbe founded a monastery here in the Seventh Century; the present church (St Ebba's Parish Church) dates back to the 11th Century. And very impressive it looks too – see the picture on Google Streetview.
Armondside Road in Hamsterley
But it’s another church that catches my eye, a little further along the route beyond Chopwell. Nestling behind the trees is the Church of St. John the Evangelist. Rather a lot younger than the one in Ebchester, it opened in 1909.
Back in the village itself, a recessed bus stop sits alongside the Chopwell Colliery Monument – a reminder that we’re deep in mining country.
At one point, over 2000 miners worked in the Colliery here. It closed in 1966 and part of the site became a nature reserve. There are “Aged Miners’ Cottages” (retirement cottages) all around here as well.
At one point, over 2000 miners worked in the Colliery here. It closed in 1966 and part of the site became a nature reserve. There are “Aged Miners’ Cottages” (retirement cottages) all around here as well.
Three commemorations in one at the Derwent Street stop in Chopwell (referred to on timetables simply as “Chopwell Bus Stand”). On the left is Go North East 6337 (YY64 GWX), an ADL Enviro400 MMC on route 10A (Newcastle to Blackhall Mill), in a special livery to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Beside it is the Chopwell Colliery Monument. There’s a War Memorial next to that as well.
Onwards through Rowlands Gill, and we’re close to an 18th Century National Trust house and chapel called Gibside. The map suggests a large site, and there’s a “Column to Liberty”, a 141-feet high monument, at one end of it.
KV02URX is a Dennis Trident Alexander ALX400, in use here on school route 893 (Whickham School to High Spen). There is a housing development called Scholars in nearby Marley Hill, but that's nowhere near High Spen, and I suspect that ‘SCHOLARS’ on the display may just mean students (or it’s a mistake)! The bus is at the Smailes Lane-Valley View stop in Rowlands Gill on Thursday 5th May 2022. The vehicle was new to Travel London, and has been owned by Phoenix Coaches of Blyth, Northumberland, but there are no clues to its current ownership.
Also at the Smailes Lane-Valley View stop, four days later, is 6358 (NK20 EMF), a Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid, which has slipped away from its official X-Lines duties to cover a turn on the erstwhile 47A.
We’re coming close, at Winlanton Mill, to the Red Kite Trail that I mentioned earlier. There’s even a pub here called the Red Kite (although apparently not trading at the time of writing).
Go North East 6070 (NK62 CZL), a Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, passes the Red Kite public house in Winlanton Mill whilst working route X45 (an alternative route from Consett to Newcastle)
It still feels very countrified, even though maps show that there are suburban-style villages (such as Winlanton Mill itself) hidden just off the main road.
Things change suddenly as we cross a busy roundabout at Axwell Park, near Swalwell. Suddenly the country lanes have been replaced by a much more built-up environment – not least the A1 trunk road, which crosses here on an over-bridge – the roads that feed the A1 are busy and complex.
There are still nice pictures to be had – such as where we cross the River Derwent shortly before it spills into the Tyne. But the distant hills are now covered with the concrete realities of 21st Century life in the suburbs of a major city.
We call in at the Metrocentre in Gateshead.
Go North East 6044 (NK12 GCU) drops off at Metrocentre on route 47A, on Thursday 5th May 2022
Just beyond is Go North East’s Gateshead Riverside Depot (on the bank of the Tyne, so does what it says on the tin). There’s an old Northumbria vehicle parked on the forecourt. It’s an ECW-bodied Leyland Olympian, probably from the 1980s. I don’t know whether it always lives there or has been moved in readiness for a Depot Open Day that is happening a few days after my visit.
1980s bus (right) and modern friend (left)
And into Newcastle City Centre, to terminate at Eldon Square Bus Station. I don’t personally see any Red Kites on the journey, apart from those that provide the logos on the buses! It's a great ride, though.
