Battle of Neville’s Cross Tour

It’s not as well known as it should be that around 2 pm on Tuesday, 17th October 1346, one of the earliest battles of the Hundred Years War took place right here on the outskirts of Durham – between large armies from England and Scotland. Unlike most battles, which are often indecisive, the English victory can justifiably claim to be pivotal, not only to the country’s early success in the Hundred Years War but also – following the capture and lengthy imprisonment of the Scottish king – in bringing decades of much-needed peace to England’s harried northern shires.

After a running skirmish between smaller forces the day before, the main battle – possibly involving thousands of men on each side – is believed to have been fought in the vicinity of Crossgate Moor, only a mile north-east of Durham’s walled peninsula. As with most battles before the introduction of artillery, it’s difficult to know for certain where, when and how events unfolded as there’s rarely any physical evidence and Neville’s Cross is no exception. For more information read our article about the Battle of Neville’s Cross.

The Durham Cow’s Battle of Neville’s Cross Tour explores or observes most of the sites mentioned in contemporaneous accounts of the battle. It divides neatly into two halves either side of the historic ‘Great North Road’ – today’s A167. East of the road is the urban half, within the city of Durham itself, while the western half – despite encroaching urbanisation – continues to offer open countryside as far as the eye can see. While each has merit, the halves couldn’t be more different in character.

Even if you’re not a history buff, this walk showcases the best that Anglo-Saxon Durham and its environs have to offer. The route passes within metres of the tomb of Northumbria’s most holy and revered of saints, St Cuthbert, who lies within Durham Cathedral’s Chapel of the Nine Altars. Blessed indeed are those fortunate enough to have enjoyed the delights of The Durham Cow’s Battle of Neville’s Cross Tour!

You’ll have no problem getting here. The start of the tour – in Durham’s historic market place – is just over 0.5 km from Durham Railway Station. The city offers a Park & Ride bus service and, as you’d expect, is well-served with time-tabled buses. Navigation on the route benefits from way-marking for a much shorter ‘Battle of Neville’s Cross’ trail that neither extends to Beaurepaire nor to the city centre. What way-marking there is our route makes full use of though it’s hardly necessary as a GPS file from The Durham Cow will ensure you get to appreciate much more of Durham than the battle itself.

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Stats at a Glance

Distance 11.7 km/7.3 miles | Elevation Gain  250 m/820 ft | Maximum Elevation 105 m/344 ft (Crossgate Moor) | Going Steep hills, generally firm with potentially very muddy sections on road, track, trail, railway path; urban, farmland, woodland | Exposure Relatively sheltered with short, exposed sections | Navigation Limited specific way-marking (OS Maps Explorer 308; Landranger 88)| Hospitality & Supplies Durham (All); Crossgate Moor (Store) | Start & Finish Durham (Market Place) NZ 274425 (what3words: gown.studio.pies) | Grade Moderate | GPS File

Click the button below to download a FREE PDF copy of the tour notes (no images). Use it with the FREE GPS file linked above.

Photographs of the Battle of Neville’s Cross Tour are available in our Google Gallery

The Tour

Durham Market Place to the Great North Road (A167)

2.2 km/1.4 miles

To begin the tour, head south-east out of the marketplace (we’ll discuss its features at the end), downhill on Silver Street and directly onto Framwellgate Bridge, the oldest crossing point on the Durham peninsula. Turn left over the bridge, steeply uphill on Crossgate, following the medieval route out of town – past the c12th church dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, which offers a nice view of the castle and cathedral behind it – to the junction with Allergate. After 200 m on Allergate, turn right, downhill on Atherton St towards the railway viaduct which, since 1857, has been another of Durham’s distinctive landmarks.

Turn left at the end of Atherton St and cross the road, passing under the viaduct, to Sutton St. Take the second turning on the left and continue on Waddington St. At the end of Waddington St – by The Kingslodge Inn – turn left on Ainsley St and continue a short distance to a lane on the right leading uphill into Flass Vale. Continue 0.5 km through Flass Vale on what eventually becomes a woodland trail, taking you discreetly past Maiden’s Bower, a low mound on the left – shrouded by trees – shortly after the trail starts. This is the spot where Durham’s monks are said to have flown St Cuthbert’s corporeal cloth (an altar cloth) while praying for an English victory (the army itself would have been drawn up around the banner of St Cuthbert).

At the junction with another trail, descending steeply from the left, turn left and continue uphill (it can get very muddy, particularly towards the top, shortly before it levels off around the perimeter of Durham Johnston School). It will bring you out onto a footpath alongside the A167/Great North Road which you need to cross (if the road’s too busy there’s a traffic island a short distance to the left). Not too far from the traffic island, in the grounds of Durham Johnston School (thought to be the actual site of battle) there’s a sculpture commemorating the 650th anniversary. Regrettably the view of it is now completely obscured by a hedge but I’ve uploaded a photo taken several years ago in the linked photo album above.

Great North Road (A167) to Beaurepaire

2.5 km/1.5 miles

Across the road, turn right and continue downhill. At the bottom of the hill – now in an area known as Whitesmocks – turn left onto a trail (Club Lane) and continue for approximately 1 km (potentially very muddy in places), across fields where the Scottish army is thought to have assembled, to a wide gate leading directly onto an access track. The main objective of the trail, west of the A167, is to reach the ruins of the former hunting lodge of Beaurepaire (pictured at the top of this post) which belonged to the monastery at Durham – where the Scots spent the night before the battle. Club Lane is an ancient right-of-way believed to have been used by monks travelling between Beaurepaire and the monastery (possibly true of Flass Vale also).

Turn right on the track and continue for approximately 1.5 kilometres, past Stotgate Farm (which, at the time, was the entrance to a hunting park of over 1,300 acres) and Bearpark Hall Farm, Between the farms, the view across the fields to the right (north) is towards Findon (Fyndoune) Hill, Sacriston over which the Scots are said to have fled during the rout. From Bearpark Hall Farm it’s steeply downhill to an eventual stile in a wire fence on the left – just before a bridge over the River Browney. Cross the stile to access a short, steep trail leading to the ruins of Beaurepaire Manor House and return the same way.

Beaurepaire to the Great North Road (A167)

4.4 km/2.7 miles

Back at the stile, continue on the access track, over the bridge, and uphill to the junction with the Lanchester Valley Railway Path (NCN 14). Formerly the Lanchester Valley railway line, it was used to carry coal along the Browney Valley to Consett between 1862-1965. Turn left on the railway path and continue for approximately 1 km, to reach a main road. EITHER cross the road and continue on the railway path OR (more likely) turn left and follow the road downhill on the footpath to visit Aldin Grange Bridge – again on the River Browney. Legend has it that somewhere in the vicinity of an earlier bridge on the site, the wounded Scottish king – fleeing after the battle on Crossgate Moor – was captured by the English squire, John de Coupland, who had spotted the fugitive monarch’s reflection in the river.

Return via the same route until you reach the access track to Aldin Grange Fishing Lakes (on the opposite side of the road). Cross the road and continue on the access track to rejoin the railway path where – assuming it’s open – you’ll also find a cafe. Turn left on the railway path and continue for approximately 1 km to a junction of tracks. Turn left downhill – through Baxter Wood Farm – to cross the last of the bridges over the River Browney on this trip. Over the bridge, turn right and continue 0.5 km on the woodland trail alongside the River Browney before a short uphill stretch to an access road (Quarry House Lane). The name of the lane references medieval sandstone quarries on the river, all of which must have had some bearing on constraining the battlefield at Neville’s Cross and affecting tactics. Continue uphill on the lane, back to the A167 and thus completing the rural, western half of the route.

Great North Road (A167) to Durham Market Place

2.5 km/1.6 miles

For the final – urban – quarter of the route, cross the A167 via the adjacent footbridge and continue on the footpath in the direction that would have been to the right when you came to the road. If you notice that you’re crossing a bridge, it passes over the East Coast Main Line, a short distance south of Durham Station. Directly after the bridge, turn left through an alley, onto St. John’s Road. Turn right and continue to the junction with Crossgate Peth. To your right are the somewhat forlorn remains of the ‘Neville Cross’ but with a rather more up-to-date and informative interpretation board. It’s thought there had always been a cross at this important transit point but that Ralph Neville, a senior commander at the battle and local magnate, had a more impressive one erected of which only the socket remains.

On the other side of the main road (Crossgate Peth), turn left and continue, eventually downhill to the junction (on the right) with Blind Lane. Cross the road at the end of Blind Lane and continue on Quarry Heads Lane. Stay on the main road, turning right at the corner of Durham School (founded in 1414 by Bishop Thomas Langley less than a century after the Battle of Neville’s Cross, ‘Old Dunelmians’ include Anthony Salvin (architect), Brian Horrocks (soldier), Alexander Armstrong (actor/comedian) and the more recently notorious ‘political advisor’ Dominic Cummings).

After approximately 100 m, turn left onto a short set of steps leading directly off the road (the footpath is on the other side, so you’ll likely need to cross the road to get to the steps). Continue on a short trail, over another road (Pimlico), then steeply downhill on a track, to an access road at Prebends Cottage (1771) aka ‘Banksman’s Cottage’. On both sides of the bend – opposite the cottage – you can observe features of Durham’s mining heritage. Firstly, there’s an easy-to-spot bricked up level that, in the c19th, provided drainage from local pits; secondly, on the adjacent side of the bend, you might notice, low down, a thickish sandstone shelf on top of which is a fascinating example of fluvial ‘cross-bedding’ (diagonal striping that results from solids settling in turbid waters) while set a little way back, beneath the shelf, is an exposure of the ‘Maudlin’ coal seam.

Turn left and continue downhill to cross Prebends Bridge which was opened in 1778 after the previous bridge had been destroyed in the cataclysmic ‘Great Flood’ of 1771. A natural disaster of a magnitude yet to be repeated in the North of England, it took many lives along with many of the bridges on the North East’s major rivers. On the western end, looking directly towards Durham Cathedral’s western towers is an inscription of Sir Walter Scott’s short poem Grey Towers of Durham that includes a line hinting at the nature of the relationship between the combatants at Neville’s Cross [If you want to learn more about Durham Cathedral I can recommend this book by Michael Sadgrove, Dean of Durham between 2003-2015].

Looking downstream, while passing over the bridge, apart from the cathedral’s towers you’ll see South Street Mill (also known as ‘Bishop’s Mill’ – a monopoly in its time), Framwellgate Bridge (crossed earlier) and – depending on seasonal foliage – the Fulling Mill, directly below the cathedral. Over the bridge, the trail continues uphill to The Watergate which, in 1778, replaced the postern gate as the means to pass through the city walls onto South Bailey (a bailey is a defensible part of a castle, external to the keep, where the administration of the castle takes place). Durham’s is split into South and North Bailey, the dividing line of which appears to be the imposing, medieval entrance to ‘The College’ where you’ll find the Chorister School. On both baileys you’ll notice ornate doorways to interesting-looking buildings most of which are part of Durham University.

On South Bailey there’s a small c12th church dedicated to St Mary the Less while on North Bailey is the ‘big enchilada’ – Durham Cathedral and, specifically, the Chapel of the Nine Altars where, every morning, the dawn light – entering through the stained-glass of the circular Rose Window – illuminates the tomb of St Cuthbert himself. While his influence is much diminished today, medieval armies considered his blessing to be crucial for a successful campaign, both sides having sought it before that fateful day in October 1346.

On the corner of North Bailey and Bow Lane is St Mary-le-Bow Church. This Grade l-listed medieval building (of indeterminate date) had been linked to Durham’s outer wall via an arch – hence the ‘bow’). Redundant by the 1970s it served as the Durham Heritage Museum until 2024. Although permanently closed now you can still see – in the garden – oversized sculptures, the unmistakable work of Fenwick Lawson. Born just a few miles away, in the north-west Durham mining village of South Moor, his sombre piece The Journey – evoking the arrival at Durham of the Community of St Cuthbert – can be seen outside The Gala Theatre on Claypath.

Turning left, up cobbled Dun Cow Lane, brings you to Palace Green where you’ll see – in a 360-degree panorama – everything that Durham is about – cathedral and castle together with other medieval and period buildings too numerous to detail here. While you’re there, see if you can spot – high on the north wall of the cathedral’s nave – the panel from where Dun Cow Lane might get its name, invoking the legend of the milk-maid who sent the monks to Durham in 995 AD. If it’s your first time in Durham you may not want to miss the iconic ‘Sanctuary Knocker’ on the cathedral’s north door.

When you finally manage to tear yourself away, continue past the castle’s Norman keep, which dates to around 1072 AD, down Owengate (where once you’d have passed through the now wholly demolished Great North Gate) to reach Saddler Street and return to the marketplace. Here, amongst the statues that include the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (1858) on his charger which infamously lacks a tongue, Neptune, complete with trident (given to Durham by George Bowes MP in 1729), and a more recent statue of a soldier of the Durham Light Infantry, the county regiment disbanded in 1968.

Also, there’s Durham’s Town Hall – built in 1356 as a Guild Hall – next door to its indoor market. St Nicholas’ Church, with its distinctive spire, replaced an earlier church thought to be of c12th origin to which the ‘Clay Gate’ was attached. This gate provided access through the town’s northernmost wall – hence the name ‘Claypath’.

That, dear friends, concludes our Battle of Neville’s Cross Tour; I hope you’ve enjoyed it and look forward to your company on the next adventure!