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These podcasts originally started as abstracts from some of the 260 places in the 5 rock books. They are themed differently to the books – by geological time, the relevance of rocks and most recently Series 3 and 4 took journeys along Hadrian’s frontier and down the 4 big northern rivers. Along the way podcasts have been evolving and some other geology not in the books has been getting a mention.

My thinking is to continue that trend - , but first of all to do a taster – a bit of an easy cheat really because this trial episode draws heavily on an article I wrote for the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Railway Line last year.

If it works I will add some more podcasts to series 5, but because I will have to do a bit of travelling and writing they will probably appear interleaved with other stories in other different series – I’m working on the assumption that you listeners will just pick and choose from the series you want to hear. Shout if I haven’t got that right.

You might think that’s more than enough of a prelude – but there’s more. Let’s do that on board the train.

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I know the River Wear starts at the confluence of several streams at the eponymous Wearhead, but we are going a little way up one of thse streams to Killhope. We will pick up a tale of lead mining there - the geology related to the mineral wealth of the North Pennines will be the thread that joins a lot of the stories in first part this episode. Then after a little Whin Sill and some elegant Carboniferous monuments its time for some younger rocks – rocks for which Durham is world famous – The Permian

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A journey from source to sea but this time the Irish sea. The River Eden starts in the south and flows north before turning west near Carlisle and heading to the Solway estuary. There are quite a few places we’ve already visited along the river in previous podcasts so we’ll do a quick recap and you can always click on the earlier episodes if you’d like to know more.

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Since the last episode we and the river have flowed past Newbrough with its definite Roam road and indefinite Roman fort and go and on through Hexham. Both places described in previous episodes. The Tyne is now a single river. Waters meet was passed at Acomb. Hexham is worth a pause anyway. Its fine Abbey and medieval buildings – many made with robbed – sorry repurposed – Roman Stone described in series 3. from Corbridge also passed and its Roman Town Coria or Corstopitum - with its main street made of cobbles from the River Tyne - The remaining Roman stones of its immense granaries and town buildings are a fraction of what was there after those medieval builders robbed the town to construct Hexham! Riding Mill and Stocksfield are behind us as well and we are now near Mickley, Eltringham to be precise.

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We begin quite a way up the South Tyne Valley – appropriately at a place called Tynehead to try to get to the bottom of the many stories about the Romans and silver mining in the north. The metals theme continues with stops and stories at a prehistoric barrow at Kirkhaugh and a Roman fort thought by some but not all to be positioned to protect Roman state lead mining. The episode ends beside the South Tyne at Beltingham - which tells a different story about mining metals in the North Pennines.

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This is a journey from moors above the middle reaches of the River Tees near Barnard Castle to its mouth where it empties into Hartlepool Bay. Along the way the plan is to look at some prehistoric rock art at Barningham, celebrate the merits of sand and gravel and a hear a cautionary tale about flood risk, revisit the salt deposits of Teesside and in Hartlepool Bay hear about some graphic evidence of times when our coastline was very different

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The first of our journeys is along the River Tees. The Tees has its headwaters way up in the Pennines, in the Carboniferous rocks just east of Cross Fell, but downstream of Cow Green Reservoir it cuts through some of the oldest rocks in Northern England – that’s why its the first or the rivers in this series. On our way downstream we will explore some different bits of the Whin Sill and some rocks it baked, the making pencils from ancient slates and take a closer look at High and Low Force, iconic sites of the Northern landscape. But let’s head for Widdybank Fell near the dam at Cow Green.

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The episode title of this section of the Roman Rock Trail isn’t perfect – as we are starting in west Durham in a place called Lanchester, then returning to the Wall at Heddon – a village which owes its position to its hard sandstone bedrock resisting glacial erosion more than the surrounding area. And then onto Benwell. A place not on the current Hadrian’s Wall Trail but from what I hear it will be in the near future. As will the final stop, South Shields Fort – popularly known as Arbeia. On the way we will look at Roman water engineering and perhaps iron production, examine some well exposed sandstone, delve more into the mysteries of the exploitation of coal and finish with a more obscure use of rocks – pigments.