Follow The All New Tyne Derwent Way With Us

Connecting the centre of Gateshead with the Derwent Valley, stretching from St Mary’s Heritage Centre past Gateshead Riverside Park and Dunston Staiths, through the Derwent Valley and ending at Gibside, the Tyne Derwent Way is being revitalised after the Government awarded Gateshead Riverside Partnership £1.5 million of UK SPF funding to improve the route. Officially launched in April, improvements to pathways, signage and artwork along the Tyne Derwent Way have already been completed to make sure the area is safe and accessible, and to encourage visitors to make the most of their time whilst exploring. 

‘It’s [also] enabling us to invest in improvements in some of the infrastructure along this route and also to start to connect with the communities who live in the area, or adjacent to it, and people who visit it regularly so we can enhance it for those people,’ says Bev Robinson, project and operations manager. 

‘Gateshead Riverside Park for instance has got a fantastic sculpture trail flowing through it which has become a little bit lost so we’re trying to bring people back to that and with funding we’re able to refurbish some of the sculptures. But we’re also looking at how we can improve access to the area and what it looks and feels like, thinking about who would be using the area. It’s about starting to explore all of that, and then getting people involved in it.’

St Mary’s Heritage Centre has reopened under new stewardship and is acting as a space for community groups to book and run events. ‘We start off at St Mary’s and we drop down to the Quayside and walk along through Gateshead Riverside Park, taking in the sculpture trail,’ Bev says. ‘We are hoping, longer term, to develop plans to get a café in that area, some toilets and a children’s play area.’

The route then leads visitors to the historic Dunston Staiths which has reopened to the public for the first time since before the pandemic and will open to the general public from 10am–2pm on the first Saturday of the month until September, and will also be used for special events. ‘We’re trying to get people familiar with it again and we’re looking at how we can start to tell stories around its heritage,’ Bev explains. ‘Some of the people in Dunston, for instance, know the Staiths well, their families might have worked there and they’ve got different experiences of it. We’re looking at different projects with them in terms of how we get their voices out there.’

From Dunston Staiths the trail goes past the Metrocentre to the River Derwent, which Bev describes as ‘an incredibly beautiful natural area’ that’s often bypassed. ‘There are walkways down both sides but it’s not highly used at the moment,’ she says. ’It’s a tranquil, beautiful space, again we’re encouraging people who really enjoy nature to get out there. We then go up through the Land of Oak and Iron and Thornley Woodlands Centre and its sculpture trail, and end up at Gibside.’

The three key aspects to encourage visitors to experience the Tyne Derwent Way are heritage, nature and culture, and all three of these aspects, accompanied by improved access to green spaces, are key to boosting mental and physical wellbeing. 

St Mary's Heritage Centre is based within the former church which dates from the 12th century and was the only Anglican church in Gateshead until 1825. Dunston Staiths is an iconic structure. Opened in 1893 by the North East Railway Company it was used to load coal directly onto coal ships and at the coal industry's peak around five and a half million tons of coal was moved this way each year. The Derwent Valley was also once home to the largest iron manufactory in Europe – Crowley's Iron Works (which you can learn more about at the Land of Oak and Iron). Gibside of course holds its own fascinating industrial past and is one of few surviving 18th-century designed landscapes. 

Whether you plan to walk, run or cycle, for more information and to plan your visit head to tynederwentway.co.uk.