Teesdale Way Section 12 (Yarm to Stockton-on-Tees)

Introduction

Section 12 of the Teesdale Way links the market towns of Yarm and Stockton-on-Tees, the first being in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire and the second in that of Durham. While they’re both classified as market towns, Stockton is far more developed and sprawling. Much of the journey is on easy trails following the river along its meandering flood plain right into the heart of Stockton with only a couple of brief ascents to break things up. Before 2018, this section finished rather more excitingly alongside the replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour which was then moved to Whitby. Now, unfortunately, there’s little of interest in the immediate vicinity with the exception perhaps, of Victoria Bridge, but things pick up quickly thereafter.

Stats at a Glance

Distance 12.2 km/7.6 miles | Height Gain 42 m/139 ft | Maximum Elevation 27 m/87 ft (Dinsdale Drive, Eaglescliffe) | Going Generally good, muddy in places. Sheltered on trails, tracks and road through farmland, parkland, woodland and urban | Navigation (OS Maps Explorer 304 & Explorer 306; Landranger 93); GPS File | Hospitality & Supplies Yarm (All); Preston Park (Ca); Stockton-on-Tees (All) | Start Blue Bell Public House, Yarm NZ 418132 (w3w: bolsters.rare.army) | Finish Chandlers Wharf, Stockton-on-Tees NZ 447138 (w3w: alerting.cubic.sake) | Grade Gentle | GALLERY

Trail Updates

The following updates have been published by The Durham Cow for this section: 180525

Description

Yarm is recorded in the Domesday Book and was settled by Dominican Friars in 1286. The town lies on the North Yorkshire side of the River Tees on a narrow peninsula, the oldest parts of which are Spitalfields and The Friarage. Central in the Georgian market place is the Dutch-style town hall surrounded by other notable buildings such as the George & Dragon public house. Here, in 1821, a meeting was held that successfully sought permission to begin construction of the of the famous Stockton & Darlington Railway. Close by is The Ketton Ox, a c17th coaching inn, the upper windows of which were once blocked to conceal illegal cock-fights. A manager there insisted that it was the most haunted building in Yarm!

Close to the bridge on the same side is a house that was once a pub, the landlord of which was Thomas Brown, the ‘Hero of Dettingen’, who is buried in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene. Brown was a private soldier, knighted for heroism by King George II, the last British monarch to lead an army into battle. The courage he showed in retrieving his unit’s flag was such that he’d undoubtedly have been awarded a Victoria Cross – the UK’s top military honour – if they’d existed at the time.

Construction of Yarm Bridge was ordered in 1400 by the Bishop of Durham, Walter Skirlaw, who also ordered the building of Newton Cap Bridge at Bishop Auckland, crossed on Section 9 the Weardale Way. A plaque dated 1810 and hidden behind a lamp-post half-way across the bridge on the downstream side denotes the county boundary. The bridge was fought over in1643 by Royalist and Parliamentarian forces when the northernmost arch had been replaced by a drawbridge. Upstream, the town is dominated by the magnificent 43 arches of Yarm Railway Viaduct. This impressive piece of civil engineering was constructed between 1849 and 1851 and runs the entire length of the old town.

Until 1887 – when Victoria Bridge was opened in Stockton – Yarm Bridge was the first crossing point on the river. Being so important it was granted a market by King John in 1207 and for many centuries was the highest navigable point on the river, developing its own shipbuilding and rope making industries. That’s about it for Yarm, but if you’ve got time it’s worth a visit to the c11th Church of St John the Baptist in nearby Egglescliffe village; it’s not far away, up a nearby cut on the far side of the buildings to the north of the Blue Bell.

Downstream from Yarm School, the Tees is joined by the River Leven but so subtly does it happen that it’s easy to miss. Elsewhere on the wide floodplain there’s not much to exercise the eye apart from the occasional angler and pleasure craft. Eventually the trail crosses a metal footbridge where it turns left uphill, on a narrow woodland path alongside Eaglescliffe Golf Course. Dinsdale Drive, on which it emerges, is the highest point on route where the street names are all golf courses.

After a short distance on the busy A135 Yarm Road the route enters the 100-acre Preston Park, heading downhill, back towards the river. Preston-on-Tees is recorded in the Boldon Book of 1183 (Durham’s equivalent to the Domesday Book). Centuries later, in 1825, David Burton Fowler had Preston Hall built, the same year that the first part of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened. By 1952 it was in the possession of Stockton Borough Council during which time it became a museum with an extensive collection of weapons, a Victorian street and most notably, Georges de La Tour’s painting ‘The Dice Players‘. The park includes a riverside landing area used by the Teesside Princess river cruiser.

Away from Preston Park, the Jubilee Bridge on Queen Elizabeth Way separates Preston Farm Nature Reserve from Bowesfield Nature Reserve and is the first of series of bridges under which the trail passes. Although the landscape is becoming increasingly more urban, the parks provide an attractive, meandering alternative for the trail, until it reaches the Surtees (A66) Bridge where trees and grass abruptly cease. After squeezing between industrial units the trail emerges, somewhat awkwardly, on Boathouse Lane before turning right to cross busy Bridge Road (coming directly off Victoria Bridge) for what today is a rather drab finish to the section, at Chandler’s Wharf.