[this_is_gav]

Hi, this is my first post and I thought this would probably be the best thread to ask this in rather than making a new topic. Please feel free to move it if not.

I would like to ask if anyone has any information about 'The Dene' near Longdyke.

We used to play there as kids, like many from Shilbottle I guess, but it never occurred to us at the time what formed it.

I've seen one map refer to the northern end of it (just south of the old Bilton Banks pits and Longdyke road) as "quarry", but it never struck me as even remotely quarry-like as I can recall little in the way of stone or rock or anything that I would associate with a quarry.

I was thinking perhaps it was an old river bed given the boggy nature of the bottom (though that could just be water draining down the steep sides) or even partly man-made to connect the Shilbottle Grange pit to the Longdyke/Bilton Banks pits (a tramway to cart coal to Alnwick perhaps?). Could it be as simple as glacial flow following the ice age?

I've really enjoyed reading about the history of Shilbottle and its stories on the forums so far, so I thought someone might know.