HISTORY OF THE BROAVNEY VALLEY 457 



When the northern ice-stream crept up the Pont, over the 

 ridge by Leadgate, and swept down the Browney Valley by 

 Smallhope Burn in its greatest strength, it pushed its way 

 across Durham city, and on by Shincliffe, till becoming 

 merged in the greater Wear ice, it travelled I know not how 

 far south, a friend tells me as far as Cannock Chase, nearly 

 in the middle of England. 



When, however, this northern ice-stream began to retreat, 

 and the thrust westwards grew feebler and feebler, it slowly 

 retired till it occupied only its own valley. In this state of 

 things the lesser Browney ice, coming at Durham into contact 

 with the greater Wear ice from Stanhope and Auckland, 

 naturally had to bend in the direction in which the greater 

 was moving, viz., towards Chester-le-Street, and this condition 

 of things lasted till both ice-streams were ultimately replaced 

 by rivers, as now. Whatever debris therefore came down 

 Browney Valley would be deposited near the nose of the 

 glacier, or be swept onwards in the direction of the Wear 

 movement. So we can understand why our Red Hills moraine 

 extends by Neville's Cross, Aykleyheads, and Kimblesworth 

 to Southill and Plawsworth, and also how it is that a line of 

 hills three or four miles long should be entirely composed of 

 sand and gravel, with here and there clay patches and isolated 

 boulders. Here is one of the finest morainic deposits in the 

 county, and yet from so small a stream as the Browney. 

 Why? 



Because the Browney was not then the small stream that 

 we know by that name, for it then found its source in Derwent 

 Head and Bolt's Law, and discharged the waters of the 

 Derwent as well as its own, and therefore was comparable 

 with the Wear itself above Durham. 



This lasted as long as the ice-dam near Burnopfield and 

 Lintz Ford held up Derwent waters, and formed the glacial 

 lake of Consett. The chief or only overflow from this lake 

 was by Howen's Gill into the valley of the Browney by Small- 

 hope Burn. 



