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.