Just
down Sockburn Lane from Neasham is Liberty Lodge from where the Teesdale Way
once more offers a route on either bank from to Low Dinsdale. I decide to cover
both by starting at Middleton One Row, heading to Low Dinsdale, then completing
the loop past Liberty Lodge, through High Sockburn, over the river and back via
Over Dinsdale . The weather is perfect for walking; sunny, blue skies, and air
that is cool, still, and insect free.
Parking
opposite The Devonport Hotel in Middleton One Row I head diagonally down the
green to locate the signed path into the woods, at this point heading upstream
on the left bank. After the interruption of Dinsdale Park’s front patio, the
woodland way continues with squirrels aplenty and the river wide and swift to
the left. All that detracts from the scene are the plastic bags and other flood
debris left high and dry in the tree branches now fifteen feet or more above
the current water level.
After
swinging left over an incongruously red-brick bridge over a culvert, I rise up
through a well churned up section, evidently the scene of a recent cross
country or re-enactment of the Battle of the Somme. Just on from there I do a
double take as between me and the river I see, not fifty feet away, a small
deer stood stock still. I stand likewise and for a few seconds it is like
something from a Robert Frost poem (c.f. Two Look at Two), then as I go for my
camera the creature bounds off gracefully through the trees and away.
The
path rises up to be joined by another from the right. Intuitively, left is the
way forward but the sign indicates right, until closer inspection reveals some
mischievous tampering (the Teesdale Way dipper bird lying on his back being a
bit of a giveaway). The left route is soon confirmed by a way-marked stile that
leads out of the woods into fields, across which the path heads for the tower
of Low Dinsdale Church.
Arriving
at Low Dinsdale I spend time to admire the old church with Norman tower and
lych-gate before heading right down the lane. Passing a field of exotic
livestock at Manor House Farm, I miss a left turn while trying to decide if
they were llamas or alpacas, but I soon realise and retrace my steps to enter a
well tarmacked single track road heading across the fields as straight as a
die.
This
anomalous feature is soon explained as I pass two or three exclusive properties
– Spa Wells, Fish Locks and The Ashes – and at the last the road ends and the
way is signed right over a stile and along a field edge adjacent to Black Wood.
At a stile at the end of the wood a path crosses and the left option soon leads
out onto Sockburn Lane (just about a mile from Neasham, reached in the previous
leg).
Turning
left down the lane, Liberty Lodge is soon reached (a pretty gabled cottage such
that the Railway Children would live at) and then ten minutes further down the
lane, High Sockburn, where a path left leads down towards the river and Girsby
Bridge.
The
bridge is a functional metal structure, but just across it I find a flat bit of
rampart on which to sit and eat lunch. It’s the end of the week so it is an
eclectic selection: pork pie, crisps, a jam scone, and a Titan bar, with the
apple held back for emergencies. The spot is peaceful and pleasant but I have
gone against one of my walking maxims – don’t stop for a break at the bottom of
a hill – so it is a bit of a struggle to get going again up the steepish path
to and around the back of Church House Farm. A few steps along their access
lane a gap in the hedge on the left leads across a few fields via an ill-defined
path; but the heading is due north, which means following my shadow at this
time of day, and just heading for the gaps and gates visible in the hedges.
Approaching
White House the path goes to the right of the buildings (and a thankfully caged
dog) and carries on along a field edge. At the corner of this field an inviting
gap appears, but it must be ignored and the field boundary followed as it
curves right to the way-marked gate. Into the next field the field edge is
followed until a wood is approached, then a sign directs the way diagonally
right up the slope, towards Hill House.
The
field is exited by a gate and again the path resumes its northward track across
fields and into the small Crosshill Woods, where the path turns sticky for a
while, before reverting to a pleasant field path down into Over Dinsdale.
Emerging via a smallholding (picking my way through free range hens, cocks,
goats and a solitary sheep) into a lane, and after a turn or two I see ahead Middleton
One Row, far away across the unseen river, with my car patiently awaiting my
return.
Turning
left, the road leads down over the Tees back to the church at Low Dinsdale,
from where it is a case of retracing my earlier steps through Dinsdale Woods to
Middleton One Row. No deer in sight this time, just a couple of bunnies on the
slope up to the village, where the Devonport Hotel is on hand to provide a pint
of bitter shandy to round off an excellent nine mile walk taking just over four
hours.
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