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Description

This was the junction between the line from Morpeth (to the east) to Reedsmouth Junction (to the west) and the branch to Rothbury (to the north). It was a single platform station with a goods yard on its north side, a series of looped sidings (two loops and two dead end sidings). The passenger platform was on the south side with a partly single storey and two storey stone built station building and a signal box at the east end. Goods trains could bypass the platform.

The platform was short and despite becoming a junction a single platform sufficed.

The line opened from Morpeth in 1862, was extended on to Knowesgate in 1864, finally reaching Reedsmouth Junction in 1865. The branch opened in 1870. Sir Walter Trevelyan of the nearby Wallington Hall was heavily involved in the opening of the original line, it was planned to connect his estate to Tyneside. Wallington is to the south of the station.

The station was slightly remodelled. The platform was extended. Originally it had loops on the north and south side of the line to the east of the passenger platform, the loops were placed on the north side only with loading banks.

The junction between the lines was immediately west of the station with the two single track lines running west to Scots' Gap Junction a quarter of a mile to the east. The station and junction were separated by the crossing of a road bridge. To the west of the bridge a water tank was on the south side of the lines and a turntable on the north side.

Not long after the opening of the branch the Rothbury route was considered the main line and Reedsmouth Junction the minor route.

The station has enjoyed various names, 'Scots' Gap' or 'Scotch Gap and 'Scotsgap (for Cambo)'. Cambo was just under a mile to the west. Scotsgap itself is a small village to the north, only three houses when the line opened.

A market opened on the north side of the goods yard, which remains open today. Hexham and Northern Marts

A tramway to a quarry opened from the Rothbury line, just north of the junction.

The station closed to passengers in 1952 when both lines closed to passengers. The Rothbury branch closed in 1963 and the railway closed completely in 1966.

Since closure the station building has become a house. Much of the site is now the Robson and Cowan Country Superstore . Loading banks survive at the east end of the site.

The most interesting survivor is the original signal box, which became a store after it was replaced. (Its replacement was a two storey box typical of the style employed by the North British Railway in Northumberland.)

The trackbed of the lines west and north are now the National Trust - Wannie Line Walk .

Local

The name Scots Gap is partly due to this being an old north-south route, also known as Scotch Gap. Chiefly it concerns a memorial stone which was located at Scots Gap to remember a skirmish between local people and a group of moss-troopers (a late type of Border Reiver) who had stolen animals from the nearby Villain's Bog. The dead were buried close to the stone. The stone was broken up during the construction of the Morpeth-Cambo turnpike road. Villain's Bog is to the east and beside (and south of) the former railway line.

Wallington is just over a mile and a half to the south of the former station and may be visited. National Trust - Wallington Hall

Cambo School is to the west. The famous landscape architect Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was educated at an earlier incarnation of the school.

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