Eastgate, County Durham

Eastgate
Eastgate
 Eastgate shown within County Durham
OS grid referenceNY951389
Civil parishStanhope
Unitary authorityCounty Durham
Ceremonial countyCounty Durham
RegionNorth East
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town Bishop Auckland
Postcode district DL13
Police Durham
Fire County Durham and Darlington
Ambulance North East
EU Parliament North East England
UK ParliamentNorth West Durham
List of places
UK
England
County Durham

Coordinates: 54°44′42″N 2°04′37″W / 54.745°N 2.077°W / 54.745; -2.077

Eastgate is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated in Weardale, a few miles west of Stanhope. In the 2001 census Eastgate had a population of 163.[1]

Eastgate originally marked the eastern border of the private hunting park of the Prince Bishops of Durham. This was second in extent only to the royal hunting park of the New Forest in Hampshire. Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge, the founder of the world's first department store, was born in the village.[2]

Geothermal plant

In 2004 it was announced that a hot geothermal power plant would go ahead on the site of a former cement works. The geothermal plant was planned to heat the UK's first geothermal energy model village,[3] the official working title being Eastgate Renewable Energy Village.[4] However the plan fell through and the village was not built. Instead a large outdoor set was built for the filming of the ITV series Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, first broadcast in 2016.

The exploratory geothermal borehole drilled in December 2004 was the first to be completed in the United Kingdom for over 20 years.[5] The water temperature at a depth of 995 m was found to be 46.2 °C, and it was estimated that the water temperature of a production borehole with a depth of about 1800m would be in the range 75-80 °C, with a volume of water similar to that already being exploited in the existing geothermal energy scheme in Southampton.[5]

Weardale Railway

The plans for the energy village included constructing a terminus for the Weardale Railway, which currently runs between Bishop Auckland and Stanhope

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Wear Valley Settlement Summary Sheets" (PDF). Durham County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 7, 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Anne Pimlott Baker, ‘Bainbridge, Emerson Muschamp (1817–1892)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2010 accessed 29 April 2011
  3. ↑ 'Hot rocks' found at cement plant
  4. ↑ http://www.weardale-works.co.uk/
  5. 1 2 Manning, D.A.C.; P.L. Younger; F.W. Smith; J.M. Jones; D.J. Dufton; S. Diskin (2007). "A deep geothermal exploration well at Eastgate, Weardale, UK: a novel exploration concept for low-enthalpy resources" (abstract). Journal of the Geological Society. 164 (2): 371–382. doi:10.1144/0016-76492006-015. Retrieved 2007-08-06.

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