Lower Teesdale Way - Leg IV: Blackwell to Croft (and return) – Monday 25 November 2013

From Blackwell to Croft on Tees the Teesdale Way Path offers a route down either bank, so I decide to take the opportunity to do a circuit going first downstream along the right hand bank and returning upstream via the field paths on the other side of the river.

Parking in Blackwell where Leg III finished, the way leads onto the A66, and then downhill, crossing over the road bridge and across the busy road to enable the minor road to Stapleton to be followed at the roundabout.  After about half a mile along the tarmac pavement the pretty village is reached, and although the Bridge Inn looks tempting it’s much too early in the walk to succumb.

Going left at the village green, up Strawgate Lane, soon reveals the first signpost of the day that takes me left up the side of and then into a field. Here no path is visible but the route is just across the field to regain Strawgate Lane a bit further along. It’s not even a short cut so keeping to the lane would not be a bad option.

The lane, now just Strawgate, gains height quite quickly and soon reveals a panoramic view across the Tees Valley to the east with the Cleveland Hills to the south east. Beyond Stapleton Grange the lane becomes a farm track and then a path, heading south-east along the ridge about fifty feet above the river. Although the path is narrow it’s classed as a bridle-path which means it’s well churned up by hooves and mountain bikes, making it a bit claggy for a while.

At Monk End Wood the path turns right, away from the river and, after a while, drops down to meet a track adjacent to a field (at this visit populated by friendly but curious goats) which heads towards Clow Beck. The beck is crossed, not by the old pack horse bridge but by a more modern construction, and the way is then through the flood gates and the farm yard and past the Clow Beck Hotel complex. This lane becomes South Parade and leads out between the Croft Hotel and the church to the fine bridge over the river.

It’s a rare fine late November day that has drawn me out and by now the sun has warmed up the clear still air so I am able to enjoy a lunch stop halfway over the bridge, gazing upstream. My reward is a glimpse of a kingfisher on a riverbank tree bough, iridescent turquoise and red, which perches for a few seconds before disappearing into the bushes in a swooping flash of blue.

On the other side of the bridge the route takes the A167 back towards Darlington, over the River Skerne, until a sign indicates the way right, up a farm access road. As the farm is approached the way leaves the drive and goes diagonally left across a field to a stile in the far corner. In this field the way hugs the right hand hedge until it bends away, then crosses over to the far corner where a stile leads into a pleasant wooded pathway.

The path exits the small wood via a stile and cuts the corner of a field to access a farm access road; a few steps to the left the way dives off right into some scrubland. Soon another access road is crossed (this one to the sewage works) and then the scrubland gives way to golf course (previously Stressholme but now taken over by Blackwell). The path widens to a pleasant track between arched trees then becomes a surfaced drive as the clubhouse and driving range are approached, before reaching a T junction at Snipe Lane, which runs parallel to the busy A66. Turning left brings me out at the Blackwell Grange roundabout, a few shot steps from the car parked in Blackwell.

Having no great expectations of this section it was a delight to walk, helped no doubt by the weather, but there was more variation than in previous legs – a view from a height along Strawbridge, some grandeur at Croft, and a rural rather than riparian section returning to Blackwell – all in less than six miles / two and a half hours. 

Lower Teesdale Way - Leg III: Piercebridge to Blackwell – Thursday 27 October 2013

Leaving the car parked alongside South Park in Darlington, a brisk walk through the park to the town centre enables the good old number 75 bus to Barnard Castle to be used again, this time to get to Piercebridge in time to walk down to the bridge and start the actual walk about one o’clock. The afternoon is bright and the trees surrounding the large village green are showing their autumnal colours against the blue sky.

On the north side of the bridge the path dives through a hole in a pink-washed wall and goes down to the riverbank opposite the George Hotel. After passing through a couple of gates the signage fails me and I guess at a footpath through a garden and drive to a track that zig-zags up to the A67 (sooner than the map indicated) which I march along for about a mile to High Conniscliffe.

Although it’s only half an hour into the walk it has been a while since breakfast so a short stop at the village bench to eat an apple is in order. From there the path is clearly signed down the side of the church and soon reaches the river, keeping alongside it across open ground pleasingly interspersed with trees and bushes.

Although the day is fine, rain earlier in the week has left the ground skiddy, rather than muddy, underfoot as the river is tracked for about an hour round a couple of meanders. The lack of distinguishing features (just bending river) makes it difficult to locate exactly where a nice spot for lunch emerges; but it has a fallen tree trunk fashioned into a bench of sorts and is pleasant enough place to spend 20 minutes snaffling a sandwich.

It turns out to be just about a mile, passing under the A1, to Low Conniscliffe where the path emerges into the quiet village for a few yards. A sign points into adjacent fields and, after crossing a couple of stiles, it is back out onto the A67 opposite the Baydale Beck pub.

Ten minutes down the busy road, Broken Scar picnic site is reached, entered, honoured with a pork pie and exited via the bottom left hand corner along a wide track beside the river. The track peters out to a path, across open land, gaining height above the river, before plunging into a small wood.

From here steep steps lead out on to a suburban street, just called Blackwell, and turning right brings me quickly to the A66 at Blackwell Bridge giving me about a fifteen minute walk back to South Park and the car.

The six and a half mile walk has taken three hours with the mainly flat terrain still offering variety with riverside, fields and woods all pleasant and the two road sections at least short.

Lower Teesdale Way - Leg II: Winston to Piercebridge – Friday 27 September 2013

Parking at Piercebridge, from near the remains of the Roman fort I boarded the 12.28 bus to Winston village, a short ride followed by an even shorter stroll down to the river, enabling the Teesdale Way path to be engaged at about 12.45.

This section of the path soon moves pleasantly through woodland, interrupted once by a lush reed bed crossed by a wooden causeway, and deserted apart from a single fisherman whose worried look indicated that he could be lacking a permit. After about half an hour a stylish bench, complete with walking stick rack, beckons from the bank, and it’s a good spot to spend 15 minutes eating a sandwich and watching the wide river flow slowly past.

Five minutes up the bank an old but solid looking viaduct crosses high above and I’m re-routed up to its disused railway line and away from the river to the A67. A half mile up the road a sign directs me back down to the river bank, initially in the wrong direction but, at the foot of the hill, a hairpin switches me back to an easterly direction. After a pleasant few hundred yards the path once more rises up to the A67 for the final stretch into Gainford.

Turning right off the trunk road, down Low Road, brings the old village into view. Past a grey gabled old pile with the stump of a windmill in the garden, is the old coach house covered in a red climber (Virginia creeper?) and then a wide green opens out fringed with a combination of large manor houses and smaller cottages, only four modern town houses detract from the timelessness of the spot.

Leaving Gainford it’s back on the A67 for five minutes before the path forks right and heads back towards the river, initially constrained by fences then over four stiles and under a small stone arch to emerge as a well-established route some 30 feet above the riverbank to the right and with rolling farmland to the left.

And that’s the way it stays for a couple of miles as Piercebridge is slowly approached. The path slowly drops to river level and on the left some variation from sheep, cows and crops is provided by the unusual sight of a field of free range chickens.

Emerging into Piercebridge through a wall at the imposing bridge, the best option is to walk over it to the George Hotel where good beer is available and an outdoor area on the riverbank offers a fine view of the bridge majestically crossing the Tees (just upstream from where the Romans took Dere Street across a couple of thousand years ago).

A pleasant two hour, five mile, stroll with the main points of interest being Gainford village and Piercebridge.

Lower Teesdale Way - Leg I: Barnard Castle to Winston – Thursday 24 October 2013

Parking the car in sunshine in Winston village I was in good time to catch the 11.34 number 75 bus, alighting ten minutes later in Barnard Castle. A fine drizzle is evident and by the time I’ve strolled along Market Place, down The Bank and left into Grey Lane, leading into some parkland with benches and play equipment, I have to stop to slip on a waterproof jacket.

From here the path along the river bank is evident and passes through a few fields before rising up a bank to emerge onto a minor road just before Abbey Bridge. Here the planned route, based on the OS map, goes over the river by the road bridge before continuing along the south bank; however the waymark posts take me immediately across the road, over a wall stile and into another field path that quickly dives into trees. By the time it becomes clear that this isn’t a traffic free route to the actual bridge I am the best part of a mile on (still following waymarks) and presumably following an alternative, north bank path. At least the rain has become so light that the drops literally dry on the waterproof as fast as they land.

This route is along the narrow strip between river and farmland, so densely wooded that the river, close as it is, can be heard but not often seen. Towards the end of this ‘Tees Bank’ plantation the path exits and goes north east through a couple of fields, via wobbly stepping stones across a stream feeding a drinking trough; at this point the lightest of showers produces the faintest of rainbows.

Soon the wooded riverbank is regained, just opposite the romantically named ‘Joining of the Waters’ where the River Greta joins from the south. Mainly the path squeezes between the steep wooded bank on the right and farmland on the left; the flat route broken only by steep steps down to cross a water-falling stream coming from East Shaws, then back up more steps to return to the familiar terrain.

Eventually the path emerges in Whorlton, where I take advantage of the shelter of trees and the support of a wall to stop for a quick packed lunch, treated also to a double rainbow over to the north. This turns out to be the last hurrah for the showers and a bright afternoon begins to develop.

Refreshed I head down the hill, via steps, to the splendid Whorlton Suspension Bridge; just a single track of wooden planks and an information board giving the history and the tariffs. No need to cross the bridge however as the path continues on the north bank from 50 yards up the road just as it switchbacks up to the village.

The path is for once right on the river bank, a bit worryingly for a while as the Tees is running quite high, but soon the way turns in and up, heading the wrong way for a short climb before emerging from a the wooded bank onto the familiar easterly trek along the farmland edge. A brief interlude of field paths cuts across one river loop at Dubock Pool, before diving back into woodland, then out again to gain height on a farm track opposite Ovington.

Here a slight overshoot creates concern but retracing a few yards reveals a waymark to the right into Holme Wood. After a detour around some new lodges the river bank is regained, once more with trees to the right and fields on the left. By now the sun is low down casting long shadows in front of me, but just as it drops below the Pennines in the west I emerge at Winston Bridge and five minutes later am back in the village chucking my dirty boots into the back of the car.

The seven and a half miles have taken about 3 hours and 40 minutes, with stops for lunch, map reading and admiring bridges. The terrain was undemanding; the route well marked in the main and the landscape pleasant if a bit repetitive.

Leg VIII – Wall to Housesteads – Friday 26 April 2013

The final morning brings blue sky and bright sunshine as we check out of The Wheatsheaf, shoulder our full packs and scour the co-op for the day’s supplies. By the time we’ve circled the village for the last time it is clear, as we await the AD122 bus, that despite the sun we will need our coats on in the brisk wind.

The bus deposits us, just before 11 o’clock, back in Wall outside the Hadrian Hotel and soon we pick up the Path along the A road to Chollerford. Here we cross the river by the old single carriageway bridge while viewing the site of the even older roman crossing, upstream at Chesters.

Back on the Military Road we head uphill, past Chesters Fort, and it’s only at the hamlet of Walwick, after 2 miles of pavement, that we are finally routed first into a country lane and then across some pleasant fields. Here a passing national park warden pauses in his litter-picking to warn us of the changeable weather expected.

Sure enough the blue sky is getting harder to find with clouds gathering and soon the wind gets colder, icy rain begins to fall, followed by just falling ice in the form of fine hail, before finishing off with a flurry of snow. Cold, damp but undeterred we press onward and upward, once again parallel to the Military Road, past Black Carts to our first (well ruined) bit of wall for the day.

After a steady climb up to 250m we level off onto the moor gaining fantastic panoramic views to the north over the North Tyne valley and the Northumberland National Park. The sky is huge up here and we can see a lot of weather today – large patches of sunlit valley, hordes of scudding clouds and darker masses trailing curtains of rain showers here and there. One of those comes our way and gives us another drenching.

The planned lunch stop is at Brocolitia Fort, but this turns out to be just a car park and a large fenced field offering no shelter. We join a few lambs hunkering down out of the wind in one of the field’s undulations and quickly devour our co-op supplies.

Any disappointment with Brocolitia is soon forgotten as the Path crosses the moor to the remains of a Mithraic temple, complete with altars and statuary (cast from the originals now in the Newcastle Museum). The scene is enhanced by lambs using it as a playground.

The Path soon reverts to type, crossing fields punctuated by stiles (thankfully fewer up here on the moor top than yesterday), hugging the edge of the military way, until finally, after 7 miles today, and 21 miles since Heddon, we see it fork off to the left and leave us to pursue the line of the wall on our own.

In the absence of the road, the remains of the wall proliferate, including bits of turrets and milecastles, as we climb up to Sewingshields Crags. With more fine hail filtering through the pine woods it’s more like November than April, but not unpleasant. Now the wall becomes a continuous companion as we rise to the crag top trig point at 325m. From here it should be a short step to complete the two miles to Housesteads, but although the wall can be seen snaking away over the hills to the west, of our destination there is no sign.

A brief sunny interlude enables us to stroll shirt-sleeved downhill, both a refreshing change, but then we are misdirected through the ‘Kings Wicket’ to the north of the wall, down below crags amid the ankle-breaking debris of centuries. Painstakingly we pick our way forward and eventually regain the wall and see Housesteads just 100 yards ahead.

Feeling triumphant, if a little sad, at the imminent completion of the final stage, we stop to absorb the achievement. But only for 30 seconds as the sunshine is now long gone and a hailstorm is heading our way. The petit-pois sized stones are quite amusing at first, but when full size frozen peas begin pelting us it is time to beat a hasty decline to the visitor centre half a mile down the hill. The green grass rapidly turns white under the carpet of hail and the bombardment becomes physically painful, then scary when forked lightning and simultaneous deafening thunder hit, creating a dramatic climax to the Ancient Roam.

The visitor centre should provide refreshment (the first available all day) and shelter for the one hour wait for the bus. However disaster strikes – the centre is closed for renovations and is nothing more than a fenced off building site with just 3 portaloos for emergencies. Fortunately the workmen have left for the day so we can scramble geriatically over a wall and huddle in a covered archway. Here, watching the pounding hail, we consume what food can be found remaining in our rucksacks – crisps, biscuits, even fruit – and speculate whether we could survive here overnight if the bus lets us down.

No need to worry. The good old AD122 turns up on time and whisks us back to Newcastle, back along the Military Road enabling us to relive the walk in reverse – 3 days compressed into 1½ hours. The familiar landmarks and watering holes unravel – the Military Road, Brocolitia, the Hadrian Hotel, Hexham Station, Corbridge, The Errington Arms at the Portgate, more Military Road, the Robin Hood Inn, the field of naughty lambs, Vindobala, the Wall that Heddon is on; and eventually, Newcastle Station.

Here, at 7pm, we get warm in WH Smith’s and have our first hot drink since 9am before boarding a comfortable train back to Darlington. We use the half hour journey to reflect on the job well done, to anticipate the return to home comforts, and to speculate on the next challenge.

Leg VII – Vindobala to Wall – Thursday 25 April 2013

It is damp with light rain as we board the 685 bus back to Holeyn Hall crossroads; unfortunately the driver is unused to anyone disembarking there, in the middle of nowhere, and overshoots the stop by about 100 yards before we point out his error and he pulls over. Retracing our steps from yesterday we soon reach High Seat and by 10.15 are back on the Path.

Back on the Path and back alongside the Military Road which will be our constant companion for today and most of tomorrow. First we are on the verge, then in fields adjacent to but below the road level, before emerging into more open field paths.

Two hours trudging up and over Harlow Hill, brings us to the Robin Hood at East Wallhouses where refreshing drinks of tea and beer are purchased and consumed in the stone floored and wood panelled bar.

The walk is resumed with the path shifting from fields on one side to those on the other of the never ending road; either side the stiles and gates intervene regularly. This section should be labelled the miles of stiles – but at least we are carrying lighter packs today as we are able to leave most of our belongings at Corbridge, to where we return tonight. The weather is a stubbornly persistent rain that varies from spitty-spotty to heavy drizzle and it is at its heaviest as we complete the two hour march to the Portgate. This is where the main Roman road north (Dere Street) passed through Hadrian’s Wall en route from Corbridge to Scotland.

More importantly it is the site of The Errington Arms and at 2 o’clock after 8½ miles it is time for lunch. Two appropriately (but coincidentally) named Ceasar salad sandwiches and two pints of beer do the job, and when we emerge 45 minutes later it is blinkingly into relative brightness; dry and with a freshening breeze.

Rising through field paths and over vertiginous stiles, good views to the north and east emerge. A pine plantation provides novelty value to the path for a while before we go back over the road and into fields of lambs and cows. Past Halton Shields the terrain flattens out and the sun begins to peep through. By Planetrees the landscape falls away to the west and, bathed in sunshine, provides the best aspect of the day.

To top it all there is a small section of wall showing how, in this section, the 2 metre wall was built on 3 metre foundations (presumed to be a cost saving measure). After the steep descent the line of the wall heads for Chollorford but helpfully for us the Path diverts south to follow the minor road towards Wall.

As the Path turns back towards Chollorford we continue into the village of Wall and bravely penetrate the eerie exterior of the Hadrian Hotel. Having completed our thirteen miles slightly ahead of schedule we have time for a cup of tea and a cake before crossing the road to the bus stop.

While waiting for the AD122 ‘Hadrian’s Wall Bus’ we are picked up instead by a random Arriva bus, whose driver offers us a lift into Hexham. We accept and Pete shows his appreciation by wetting the floor of his bus; thankfully it’s just water from a leaking bottle in his bag. Dropped off at Hexham station we improvise a train journey (one stop) to Corbridge only to discover the station is a good half mile outside the town. No matter, it’s a lovely evening by now so a short stroll across the picturesque bridge over the river and into town gets us to The Wheatsheaf before 7pm.

Tonight’s evening meals are excellent (beef chilli and smoked haddock – not together obviously – and a pint) and we finish off with another couple of pints watching football in the bar before retiring for a well-earned sleep.

Leg VI –Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Vindobala – Wednesday 24 April 2013

The 09.06 train from Darlington gives a smooth run to Newcastle, enabling us to be on the Quayside before 10 o’clock and set off westwards into a stiff breeze. The jumble of bridges is soon left behind as we stride along the concrete towpath where shiny new developments stare across at the derelict but still impressive Dunston Coal Staiths.

As the towpath ends the route goes up onto the A695 and then up above the road onto an enclosed strip of tarmac through grass verges and scrub, similar to that to the east of the city but here the graffiti on the walls is of higher quality. Somehow we get thrown off course at the A1 roundabout and follow the river instead of cutting inland through Denton Dene. Wandering into Newburn Riverside, aka nowhere, as we realise our mistake, consult the map and retrace our steps to regain the urban pathway at Lemington.

Having wasted 40 minutes and done an extra mile we ignore the invitation for tea / coffee in the Lemington Community Centre, and then at Newburn we resist a tempting bench under a lovely flowering cherry (mainly as it appeared to belong to some sheltered accommodation and although we could pass for OAP residents we did not wish to impose). Wavering we press on a few steps to find an unexpected but most welcome sight.

Nestled on the riverbank in the shadow of the single track Newburn Bridge is The Boathouse pub. Unpretentious, it provides two good beers to wash down our packed lunches while we sit on the bench outside and contemplate progress. Six miles done in two and half hours, but more importantly Newcastle’s westward sprawl seems to finish here, and with it the tarmac path, which becomes gravel and then just packed earth.

The open space that is Tyne Riverside Country Park is soon left behind and after a couple of miles of pleasant riverbank we find ourselves below Heddon-on-the-Wall. To get there we cross the line of the historic Wylam Waggonway (along which William Hedley’s Puffing Billy locomotive hauled coal waggons a year before George Stephenson built his prototype). Stephenson’s cottage is just along the way but we head inland, skirting a golf course and then climbing steeply up the narrow lane, gaining 100m in height in just over a winding mile, to the village. From up here the views across the Tyne are grand and probably reflect in the value of the imposing residences we haul ourselves past.

At Heddon is the Dingle Dell Café which provides tea and cake in stifling heat that threatens to induce a soporific coma; so it’s 3 o’clock before we drag ourselves out and set off on the final leg of the day. But not before we visit the village’s eponymous masonry, the first this side of Newcastle, where Pete photographs Alan-on-the-wall at Heddon-on-the-Wall!

Despite its small size Heddon proves tricky to get out of, but a quarter of an hour later we take our first steps along the dreaded Military Road. As feared, it’s concrete underfoot for a while, but after about a mile we are signed first onto a verge pathway and then into the adjacent fields, where we remain up to the site of Vindobala Fort.

Beyond there, the mercifully dry field paths take us to High Seat where we encounter our first sheep related incident of the walk. Four lambs have got out of their field and are on our path; as we walk along it they recede and it is apparent we are driving them towards an un-gated exit onto the road. By ducking through a hawthorn hedge into an arable field we are able to outflank them and re-emerge, only slightly scratched, onto the path ahead of them, causing a volte-face and retreat whence they came. Hopefully their mothers will look, well, sheepish, when they realise their lack of maternal care.

We ourselves emerge from the path onto the minor road and head south, over the A69 to the bus stop at Holeyn Hall crossroads on the B6528. Timing has worked out well and we have just a half hour wait before we can flag down the number 685 Arriva bus. Fifteen minutes and £8.20 later we are disgorged at Corbridge and after a nervous circuit of the town we find the Wheatsheaf Hotel where we are welcomed and shown to our rather spacious, well-appointed twin room.

The evening meals (ham salad for Pete and lasagne for Alan) are tasty and filling, and the beer is fine. Afterwards we take a stroll round the town calling in at the Golden Lion for an alternative, but slightly inferior pint, before returning to our room. It has been a long day, 13½ miles carrying a full pack and including probably the most severe climb of the trip up to Heddon, so dozing off to the background of televised snooker can be understood if not forgiven.

Leg V – Wallsend to Newcastle-upon-Tyne – Wednesday 27 March 2013

We plan to do the second half of the Hadrian’s Wall Path (HWP) from East to West as this will take us through the built up, flat, wall-less areas first and give a more satisfying climax back at the remote, hilly, thoroughly be-walled Housesteads.

As a taster and to get the legs working again we decide to first knock off the five miles between Wallsend and Newcastle-upon-Tyne before embarking on the final three day hike in April. To that end we head up through the Tyne tunnel in Pete’s ‘plumber’ van and park outside the relatively new (c2000) Segedunum Museum.

We eschew its attractions for the time being and hit Hadrian’s Way, which combines the HWP with cycle route 72 in a tarmac ribbon just north of the river. Starting at the once mighty Swan Hunter shipyard, now eerily quiet and almost unnoticed behind the shrubbery, we head west with snow flurries at our back.

After about a mile of industrial scrubland we emerge onto the concrete river embankment and at least get a view across the Tyne; although only of the paint warehouses and cement factory. A sign warns us off the riverbank itself which retains contamination from the St Anthony’s lead works. The near bank displays the slowly rotting hull of a bygone ship, its remaining timbers reminiscent of a whale’s ribcage.

About half way to the city centre, new developments begin to emerge including the bijou St Peter’s Basin, full of yachts and surrounded by posh waterfront flats, serviced by a swish and curiously named bar restaurant. Unfortunately it is a little early to sample the Jennings ale on offer at the ‘Bascule’, presumably named to reflect the type of bridge we had unconsciously just traversed at the marina entrance.

Pushing on, the famous Tyne bridges come into view, along with the impressive Sage and Baltic buildings on the Gateshead side; although the view is a little unfamiliar when approaching from the east.

From the Quayside it is the climb of the day up to the town and onto Grey Street where, amid the yuppie wine bars and trendy eateries we find the Blake’s Coffee House, where the décor looks as distressed as us. Here sitting at the old wooden tables we get lunch, an all-day breakfast (‘no mushrooms’), a bacon & egg ‘stottie’, and two pots of real tea for just over a tenner. Good food, good tea, good value.

Refuelled we head into the Metro at Grey’s Monument and a few stops later emerge in Wallsend and walk back to the museum.

There is still an hour to closing so claiming our concessions (student/pensioner) we purchase entry and whizz off to the reconstructed Bathhouse, back round the exhibits, and up to the 9^th floor ‘viewing panorama’. From here the fort’s floor-plan can be seen laid out below, while a video exhibit portrays how the site would have looked over the last 2,000 years – from fields to fort; to ruin and  burial under shipyard, colliery and housing; before being cleared to create the current amenity.

The Ancient Roam is back in business and though this section was short and uninspiring, it was good to get back on the path, to visit Segedunum, and to whet the appetite for the final legs ahead.