Teesdale Way Section 10 (Hurworth-on-Tees to Middleton One Row)

Section 10 of the Teesdale Way links the villages of Hurworth-on-Tees and Middleton One Row. Starting from the King George V Memorial Fountain in Hurworth-on-Tees this section of the Teesdale Way passes through the village of Neasham before making its way, gently and sinuously, to the Devonport Hotel on The Front in Middleton One Row. THERE IS A GPS ROUTE FILE AVAILABLE FOR THIS SECTION AS A FREE DOWNLOAD FROM THE SHOP.

Stats at a Glance

Distance 9.9 km (6.2 miles) | Height Gain 80 m/264 ft | Maximum Elevation 47 m/153 ft | Profile Generally flat | Going Generally good, muddy in places. Sheltered on trails, tracks and road through farmland and woodlands | Supplies Hurworth on Tees; Middleton One Row

Leaving the King George V Memorial Fountain in Hurworth-on-Tees, the trail passes the village green where several depressions mark the locations of medieval plague pits. Amongst the incumbents in the churchyard of All Saints Church, is the mathematician William Emerson who was born in Hurworth but also spent a lot of time at his property in Weardale, where the surname is heavily represented. At Neasham the trail takes to a pleasant embankment with a convenient riverside pub which separates the village from the potential ravages of a swollen river.

Off the embankment and onto Sockburn Lane, the route passes the entrance to Neasham Hall, heading for Sockburn, the most southerly diocese in County Durham. Sockburn was the manorial home of Sir John Conyers who is said to have slain the legendary Sockburn Worm using a sword known as the ‘Conyers Falchion’, a representation of which is presented to each new Bishop of Durham in a public ceremony on Croft Bridge. The trail however, turns off the road before reaching the hall, heading for Low Dinsdale with its manor house (which once belonged to the Surtees family) and a very attractive church of local red sandstone, dedicated to St John the Baptist.

From there the trail crosses a field to enter a kilometre-long section of Dinsdale Wood, magnificently populated with wild garlic in spring and an environment encountered much less frequently as the trail approaches the coast. Out of the wood, the trail now diverts around Dinsdale House, rather than self-consciously crossing the patio as it used to do. At the bottom of the drive, it rejoins a short section of riparian woodland to pass below Tower Hill, the site of a Norman motte.

The motte was possibly constructed to dominate Pountey’s (Pons Tees) Bridge where a Roman road originally postulated by the c18th antiquarian John Cade and referred to as ‘Cade’s Road’, may have crossed the Tees (although Cade thought it crossed near Sockburn). Irrespective of the origins of the road, the bridge was real despite nothing now remaining of it. Heading upwards, out of the woods, the trail crosses an unusual, steeply sloped, south-facing village green to reach The Front in Middleton-One-Row, where The Devonport, a welcoming c18th inn and hotel, acts as the finish of the section.