Bill's Walks

Teesdale Way – Winston to Piercebridge

Approx. Distance: 13 miles

Map: Explorer 304

Start: Piercebridge Village (GR NZ211159)

Click to View Start Position on Google Maps

Grade: Medium

By the time that the Tees has reached Winston it has reached middle age and consequently features such as waterfalls have all but disappeared as you will note in the latter stage of the walk. This is a land of trees and fields although there is still a good variety of birdlife to be seen.

We start at Piercebridge which is full of interest. The village lies mainly within the confines of the 11 acre roman fort erected circa AD 300. The north-west corner has been excavated and we pass this noting the sewerage system. Piercebridge lies on Dere Street and the Romans had a bridge here to cross the Tees and this led to enhanced development of the fort. The bridge is now long gone but records indicate that some of the structure could be seen as late as the early 1700s before the great flood of 1771 removed the traces. Its location is easy to see as one only has to follow the straight lines of Dere Street. The church of St Mary is modern dating back to 1873 but staying with the roman theme, accidental excavations revealed another structure which was thought to be another bridge a further 200 metres downstream and the question of why there had been two bridges presented a problem. The local archaeo;ogist Raymond Selkirk formulated a theory that this structure was a quay and that the Romans had used the Tees for navigation up to that point and indeed there is a great deal of evidence to back up the theory. Mr Selkirk has extended the theory that the Romans also navigated the River Skerne and the Ferryhill levels to reach the Wear near to Croxdale and his books on the theory make an interesting read.

We cross the Tees by the new bridge of 1789 to pass through Kathleen’s Wood (which is straight ahead) to reach a road where we turn right to pass Cliffe Hall and its lovely cricket ground, close to the site of a deserted medieval village where the OS map shows that the market cross still survives and the mounds of earth indicate the location of the buildings. For anyone interested in lost villages, which were lost for a host of reasons, the book “The Lost Villages of Britain” by Richard Muir is an excellent book and well worth having. The route now follows a succession of footpaths and bridleways past Allan’s Grange and Low Field to reach Chapel House and here the navigation needs care as the waymarking is poor. Pass by Chapel House on your right and through the gate ahead into a field and at the end of this, heading west, go right through a gate and then immediately left to follow the same hedgeline on the other side. At the end of this field cross back to the original side of the hedge. The route here now follows the hedge west and at the end of this field heads north for a short distance before going west to reach Boar Lane. Turn right and follow the good bridleway bending to the west to reach St Lawrence Chapel. Of interest throughout in this section are the fine views over the Tees valley to Gainford and just after passing Low Field you would have crossed the long disused private railway line which linked Forcett Quarry to the Tees Valley Railway Line to the east of Gainford.

St Lawrence Chapel dates from the 12th Century and also of note here is the medieval bridge nearby. We now descend to Barford Hall and the site of another lost village although there are now houses here. This hamlet goes back to the Doomsday Book when it was known as Bereford and this probably scuppers the old tale that the locals on both sides of the river fought for control of the ford. The north bank won, hence Gainford whilst the south who had attempted to barricade the ford, became Barford. Probably a nice story! Pass in front of the cottages and at the end take the bridleway to the left on a clear track which after about half a mile reaches the River Tees which is followed upstream past Hedgeholme to arrive at Winston Bridge.

This superb bridge was built over the gorge in 1764 and was one of the few to survive the floods of 1771 and boasted the biggest single span in the area. Some time ago around 1950 a fighter pilot flew his plane (Hurricane or Spitfire) under the span and there is now a model of one fixed to the parapets. A very daring feat!

At the end of the bridge we turn downstream on the Teesdale Way into a meadow. Above us is the village of Winston, which is not visited on this walk, although you get fine views of the church of St Andrews. This site of the church goes back to the 13th Century although the church was substantially modernised and rebuilt in 1848 to the design of John Dobson, the famous Newcastle architect. He was the main inspiration in the massive development of the same period in Newcastle which resulted in the fine city it is now. His Grey Street is often considered to be the best architecturally in the country. The meadow through which we are now passing has another feature of interest, this being a large glacial erratic of shap granite brought down to this area by a glacier in the last ice age.

It is straightforward down the riverside noting the large group of butterburr early on to the site of the old railway bridge over the river. On reaching this climb up to the top of the embankment and follow the old trackbed to the main road A67. This railway (the South Durham and Lancs Union) has been met on earlier walks notably West of Staindrop and was used frequently by the Queen Mother on her regular visits to to family home at Streatlam and they even had their own station. The line closed in 1964. On the A67 we cross Alwent Beck and after about 400 metres on the road take the Teesdale Way path down to the Gainford Spa. The well was discovered by miners digging for coal and led to the development of Gainford as a much bigger village. Take time to taste the sulphur laden water which on a hot day can be refreshing. Continue along the riverbank path to the A67 which is followed into Gainford.

The discovery of the water and not the coal changed Gainford to a spa and not a coal village. The arrival of the railway in 1856 brought more visitors and led to the development of housing to accommodate them but before that Gainford had a long history. The ford here was used by the Brigantes to their fort at Stanwick to the south and there was a ferry here until the 1950s which like the one at Wycliffe fell into disuse. The site of this was behind the 13th Century church of St Mary’s built with stone salvaged from Piercebridge Roman Fort. We enter Gainford passing Gainford Hall built in in 1603. The house was in ruins in the 19th Century but has now been restored. Note the big circular dovecote and the Tuscan Column originally at Stanwick Hall which was built as a memorial to the Peace of Aachen of 1748. The village deserves time to look at so walk towards the cemetery and follow the river to the rear of the church to arrive at the superb village green. The village is bypassed by the A67 which follows the route of the old back lane. A particular interesting building is the bow fronted Gainford Academy founded by the minister Wm Bowman in 1818. Its most famous pupil was Arthur Stanley Jefferson who achieved fame as Stan Laurel! There are other Laurel connections in the north of England notably at Ulverston where there is a museum dedicated to him and also there are links to North Shields.

Wm Bowman, along with the vicar, built a gas works on the river bank which lit the village until 1950. The vicars son became the British Consul to San Marino and had the title Baron Montalbo, hence the appearance of that name at Barnard Castle and also in the village itself where his sister donated a building used as a village hall.

The large derelict building as you leave Gainford on the A67 was built in 1900 as a Roman Catholic orphanage and known as St Peter’s School and it later became an Approved School for wayward youths. It is now a straight forward walk along the Teesdale Way, recrossing the Forcett Line, and above the riverbank past Snow Hall back to the start at Piercebridge.