An Autumn Day

A view of St Helen's Church, and Puffing Billy on Pockerley Waggonway. St Helens Church at Beamish was opened to the public by the Bishop of Durham on the 12th November 2015. The 12th century church was previously located in Eston, but had been disused since 1962. Puffing Billy is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive, constructed in 1813–1814 by coal viewer William Hedley, Enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne. It was the first commercial adhesion steam locomotive, employed to haul coal chaldron wagons from the mine at Wylam to the docks at Lemington-on-Tyne in Northumberland.