Northumberland Railway Walks Society

Welcome

NRWS is a friendly walking group based in Northumberland, founded in 1986 to encourage preservation of our disused railway lines as walking corridors.

We welcome members from a wide catchment area which is reflected in our varied walk programme.

Our walk leaders aim to provide a fun and interesting day out typically over 5-8miles with points of interest reflecting our local heritage and history especially but not exclusively, our railways. We walk on Sundays twice per month. The group often gather for coffee or food too at the end of a walk. With concern growing for climate change we have been actively involved as volunteers in local environmental projects such as tree planting and maintenance.

We also organise walking holidays and social events as part of our annual programme.

Your membership includes a quarterly printed journal called Trackchat which provides reports on past walks and details of future walks

For details of our forthcoming walks programme please visit our Forthcoming Events page {now updated with events to the end of March 2026}, our programme for 2026 is now available on our Annual Programme page.

Regretfully dogs are not allowed on our walks

We have changed the way we show photographs of our activities. The home page now only shows our two most recent activities, for more photographs of earlier activities over the years, please click here for our Photo Gallery 2026 giving photographs from this years walks. For previous years walks see Photo Gallery 2025 and Photo Gallery pre 2025

Sunday 19th July

An easy day out taking in Blyth battery (WW1 & 2) structures, Lysdon farm, Into New Hartley, visiting the Hester memorial garden, and a look around some interesting features from an industrial past, then returning by an interesting water feature back to our start point.

Photographs by Alison Waters and other members

The Hartley Colliery disaster (also known as the Hartley Pit disaster or Hester Pit disaster) was a coal mining accident in Northumberland, England, that occurred on 16 January 1862 and resulted in the deaths of 204 men and children. The beam of the pit's pumping engine broke and fell down the shaft, trapping the men below. The disaster prompted a change in British law that required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.

Blyth Model Aircraft Field

Gloria Pit Site

Hartley Memorial Gardens

In the woods

Meggie's Burn

Tree Lined Path

Sunday 5th July

Dave and Eleanor lead us on what was a local walk for most of us but surprising how many new areas we covered. We started in Ulgham, then Widdrington then Stobswood back to start. Lovely to see carpets of wild flowers growing in old open cast mine areas. Thanks to our walk leaders

Photographs by Dave Haddon and Alison Waters