The Gaunless is a tributary river of the Wear in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Its name is

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

, meaning "useless".A Potted History of West Auckland - Martin Connolly The Gaunless Viaduct, built in 1825, was the tallest

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

on the

South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway The South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) built a railway line linking the Stockton and Darlington Railway near Bishop Auckland with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (the West Coast Main Line) at Tebay, via Barnard Castle, Stainm ...

. Formed just south of the

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

of Copley, by the confluence of Arn Gill (to the south, coming west from south of Langleydale Common) and Hindon Beck (to the north and coming east from Langleydale Common), the Gaunless wends its way east, passing the settlements of

Butterknowle Butterknowle is a village in Teesdale, County Durham, England. Butterknowle is situated between the market towns of Bishop Auckland (9 miles to the east) and Barnard Castle (6 miles to the south-west). It has an attractive rural setting within t ...

, Cockfield and Evenwood and through West Auckland before skirting the south and east of

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham, England, Durham. M ...

on its way to meet the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in Northern England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...

. An extension of th
Copley Met.Office
weather station has been placed at the head of the river a
Copley Lead Mill
to study its unique climate of frost and snow. It lies in a frost hollow and receives no sunshine between October and March because of its geography.

Settlements

* Copley * Butterknowle * Evenwood * West Auckland * Bishop Auckland

Tributaries

* Arn Gill * Hindon Beck ** Cowclose Beck *** Foul Sike * Grewburn Beck ** Howle Beck * Gordon Beck * Norton Fine Beck * Oakley Cross Beck * Hummer Beck * Dene Beck * Coundon Burn

Bridges

* Gaunless Bridge * Gaunless Viaduct *

Swin Bridge Swin Bridge (also 'Cockfield Bridge' or 'Haggerleases Bridge') is the local name for a skew arch bridge in County Durham. It was built in 1830 for the Haggerleases branch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, crossing the River Gaunless at C ...

References

External links

Gaunless {{England-river-stub