Lower Teesdale Way - Leg VII: Middleton One Row to Eaglescliffe – Friday 20 June 2014

Parking again opposite The Devonport Hotel in Middleton One Row, I this time go left (downstream) along the green to locate the signed path. This heads diagonally down dissecting some gardens before emerging at the river bank. The riverside path continues between the river and meadows, at this time of year chest high in flora - red poppies and less unidentifiable species in yellow, pink, and spindly purple. Also rampant are the nettles, thistles and giant hogweed, the latter warranting notices that helpfully warn of the dire consequences of contact.

After half an hour, having crossed a metal footbridge and climbed a stile, the path becomes indistinct but re-asserts itself atop a dyke to the left. As this ends, a path at right angles to the river goes left up a grass track, soon enclosed by fences, to the road at Low Middleton Farm.

Turning right at the farm, a path leads through a field, becoming a cart track, passing through a gate and then rising up a grassy knoll (Fatten Hill). Here a signpost offers an alternative route to Yarm but the Teesdale Way continues on, through the Newsham Grange Farm and onto a minor road.

After about half a mile a signpost on the right shows the way, via a gate and diagonally downhill through a field back to the riverbank. The track here is rutted underfoot and thick with thistles but soon enters a wooded section, providing welcome shade and easier walking, but when the trees end the thigh deep vegetation returns making progress quite hard work, akin to wading through treacle.

It is a long trek, about four miles, along the river bank before civilisation returns at Aislaby Grange, after which the path becomes more travelled and so easier to speed along, keen to reach the watering holes of Yarm. But it is still a mile or two before the posh riparian properties come into view, followed by the impressive railway viaduct, passed under as the path climbs up to the town.

Just across the A67 is the Blue Bell Inn and, eight miles into the walk, a pint of Hobgoblin is in order, swiftly swallowed in the beer garden, conveniently placed right on the Teesdale Way.

Twenty minutes later I am back on the route, now a pleasant, well-trodden path along the river with open views across fields, which continues for about three miles until Eaglescliffe Golf Club intervenes and diverts the path inland at ninety degrees to deposit me, somewhat incongruously, into a modern housing estate.

Turning right and following the TWP signs, I reach the A67 and then zig-zag my way to Eaglescliffe station for a train back to Dinsdale (as the station at Middleton St George is called). It is only two stops, about six minutes, which is mildly insulting given the six hours it has taken to walk the twelve miles; and then I’ve another mile from Middleton St George to Middleton One Row to pick up the car.

Nevertheless it was a fine walk, but probably better done in spring or autumn when the vegetation would be less troublesome.

Lower Teesdale Way - Leg VI: Neasham to Middleton One Row (circular) – Thursday 13 March 2014

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.

Lower Teesdale Way - Leg V: Croft to Neasham - Wednesday 4 December & Tuesday 8 October 2013

This short section was covered by two even shorter walks a couple of months apart: a circular route from Hurworth to Croft and back; and a brisk there and back from Hurworth to Neasham. Together they would give a six mile figure of eight.

***

Parking by the Village Green in Hurworth I head for the Spar shop, turn the corner, cross the road and follow the footpath sign down a ginnel, or back passage, behind the terraced houses. This becomes a track then a path behind first The Grange then a modern housing estate, before crossing over the railway. The path continues across a field to meet the A167 just north of Croft.

Turning left it is just a short step to the familiar bridge over the Tees at Croft, but the Teesdale Way now leads left following the road up the hill to Hurworth Place. After about 50 yards, immediately after re-crossing the railway (at Railway Terrace appropriately enough) a stile on the right leads down to a path alongside the railway lines, where it’s quiet on the sunken path, until an inter-city 125 roars past.

Soon the path turns sharp left into the Rockcliffe Estate, passing the swish Middlesbrough FC training complex and the even swisher Rockcliffe Hall Hotel and Golf Club, before emerging into field paths. Away to the left are the Hurworth School grounds and the view to the right soon opens up to reveal, across the farmland and fairways, the winding river and distant hills.

The field path ends at a stile leading out onto a lane, and turning left the village approaches. However before it is reached another stile on the right leads into a field; the way out is not immediately obvious, but at the bottom left hand corner the exit stile is located which gives entry into a sunken lane. This rises gently to emerge back at the Village Green, completing  an easy 3 mile stroll, on a cool but bright December day, in just about the hour.

***

Two months earlier, following a dental appointment at Hurworth, and the day being fine, I take the opportunity to knock off that portion of the Teesdale Way Path from there to Neasham, which follows the road rather than the river.

Hurworth’s Green is wide with mature trees, with leaves just on the autumn turn, and is fringed with distinctive detached properties, becoming more higgledy piggledy and terraced beyond the solid looking Norman church.

Leaving the village at The Otter and Fish, the mile to Neasham is straight and level with the river somewhere to the right and farmland to the left, flat enough to give a glimpse in the distance of the Darlington Arena, erstwhile ruinous home of Darlington FC and now, bizarrely, owned by the amateur rugby union club Mowden Park. Newbus Grange adds interest to the right before entering Neasham at the new flood defence works, impressive in scale and hopefully in effectiveness.

The route goes right, as signed, along the flood defence wall to immediately reveal the Tees, wide and majestic, with today a solitary swan, white against the brown peaty water. The raised path along the grassy embankment gives a fine aspect along the river, and also into the back gardens of the ‘Des. Res.’ that make up the South side of Neasham village. One of the properties is the Fox and Hounds pub whose “winter hours” preclude a midday pint despite the sunshine and warmth of this October day.

After half a mile the path descends into Sockburn Lane, which today is my turning point, returning through the village and back along the road to Hurworth. Here the Bay Horse is open for winter business and it seems only right to reward such enterprise by purchasing a glass of excellently maintained Jennings draught Cumberland Ale.

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.