THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017 The Northern Echo 47 Walks what’son Walks Elwick and Dalton Piercy

Walk information Dalton Piercy is a lovely village, Head through the gate and follow with its stream and large green. the rutted grassy track straight Distance: 4.8 km (3 miles) The history of this village dates on, with the hedge on your left, for back to pre-Conquest times when it 275 metres then, halfway across Time: 1 - 2 hours was situated within the boundaries this field, follow the rutted farm Maps: OS Explorer Sheet 306 - of the Manor of Heort, a large track swinging sharp left through always take a map on your walk Saxon estate, possibly associated a gate in the hedge on your left Start / Parking: Parking around with the Northumbrian kings, that (waymarker). After the gate, follow Elwick village green. stretched from Castle Eden Dene the rutted track heading down into to the River Tees. The name of the shallow valley of Dalton Beck, Refreshments: Pubs and shop at Dalton has Anglo-Saxon origins and over a bridge across the stream and Elwick means the ‘enclosure in the valley’. up to reach a gate across the track. Terrain: Farm tracks, field paths Following the Norman Conquest, Do NOT head through this gate, but and country lanes. A couple of the manor was granted to Robert de turn right immediately before it stiles to cross, and some of the Brus, and over the centuries passed and walk across the field alongside paths are muddy underfoot. Some to several powerful Northern the hedge on your left (Dalton Beck road walking. families including the Balliol down to your right) to reach a gate How to get there: Elwick lies family of Barnard Castle, Percy to your left just before the end of just off the A19 to the west of family of Alnwick and the Neville the field. Head left though this gate Hartlepool family of Raby. The village was then turn immediately right along once famous for its gates at either the edge of the field for 25 metres to Caution: Take care walking along end of the large village green to reach the corner of the field where the roads. Some paths are muddy keep livestock in. you head left across the field, still underfoot. Horses and cattle in with the hedge on your right. Walk some of the fields; always give farm along the edge of this field for 325 animals a wide berth, especially if It is sad to see litter along the metres to reach a choice of two accompanied by a dog. Let the dog road verges, thrown from car gates just before the buildings of on along the enclosed path (hedge enclosed track (running parallel go if you feel threatened. windows. The plastic bottles will Hart on the Hill. Head to the right on your right and fence on your with the farm lane). Walk along take hundreds, if not thousands, through the right-hand gate, which left) for a further 450 metres then, the grassy track, which leads on to of years to degrade and will leads across the garden to join at just beyond where the path bends join the farm lane after a second always be there. That thoughtless Points of interest the fence/hedge on the opposite half right (as you are parallel stile, which you follow on to join moment when a driver decides to side, where you follow the enclosed with cream-coloured Dove Cote the road on the edge of Elwick throw their plastic bottle out of grassy path to the left then right at LWICK is a beautiful Farm across to your left), turn left opposite St Peter’s Church. Turn the window may keep their car the houses, and on to join the road. old village with an through a metal gate in the fence left along the road for a few paces clean, but will forever pollute the on your left (waymarker). attractive assortment countryside. then right into the churchyard, of old cottages and Turn right along the road (take where you follow the path across Ehouses overlooking a 2care – walk in single file on the Head through the gate and walk the churchyard passing to the right large village green. The history of The walk verge and make yourself visible 3up across the field alongside of the church, then through a gate this village stretches back over a to traffic) and follow it for 700 the hedge on your right to reach a and down steps to re-join the road millennia, as its name is derived metres into Dalton Piercy. Walk gate in the top corner of the field in a dip. Head to the left along the from the Viking word ‘wick’ From the village green in the along the road across the village that leads onto a track just before footpath on the right-hand side of meaning ‘farm’. The present St 1centre of Elwick (with your back green through Dalton Piercy, the buildings of Dove Cote Farm. the road, and follow this up back Peter’s Church dates back to 1190, to the pubs) turn right and walk passing the red ‘phone box on your Turn right along the farm track, into Elwick. although there has been a place of along the road across the village left, then as you reach the top of and follow it bending round to the worship on this site since Saxon green then, as you reach the top the village green, take the road left around the farm buildings for times, and is an unusual building of the village green, turn right turning to the right along College 50 metres then, as you reach the Mark Reid with its castellated tower on the (immediately after Home Farm Close. Walk along College Close brick/stone barn and oil tank on south side (usually they are on the shop) along a farm track (signpost). for a few paces then, where the your left just after the farmhouse, TeamWalking west side of the building). Elwick Follow this farm track straight road bends left, head straight on head to the right through a black is a good example of a planned on through the farmyard, passing (to the right) along the footpath gate that leads out onto a field Hill Skills & Outdoor Norman village, with houses set between the large barns, then just (signpost) along the driveway, and (if there are horses in this field, Adventures with Mark Reid back from a village green, and then after the large barns follow the almost immediately branch left then follow the farm lane to www.teamwalking.co.uk strips of land running back from track bearing slightly left to soon along a tree-shaded footpath (do not Elwick instead, as it is marked the houses, in typical ‘toft and croft’ reach a stile beside a gate across the follow the driveway). Follow this as a permissive path). After the pattern. The walk between Elwick enclosed track (ignore the enclosed clear enclosed footpath straight on gate, head diagonally left across and Dalton Piercy is a delight, track to the right). Head through heading out of Dalton Piercy, and the middle of the field (passing Unique corporate activity days, with far-reaching views across the the gate and follow the enclosed continue on for 250 metres (caution: the telegraph pole in the middle navigation skills and team building surrounding countryside towards track straight on across fields for walkboards slippery) to reach a of the field) to reach a stile beside experiences in the great outdoors. Hartlepool, Tees Mouth, Teesside 175 metres to reach another gate small bridge across Bogle Beck. a gate in the far left corner of teamwalking.co.uk and the North York Moors. at the end of the enclosed track. After the stream continue straight the field that leads onto a grassy

Birdwatch By Ian Kerr HE freezing conditions markings on their wing-tips. logged passing Whitburn. Singles fortunately unsuccessfully, at a numbers of waxwings which have currently gripping much Nearly all of those in the region have occurred at other localities drake Eider which had to dive to appeared over the past few weeks. T of Scandinavia, the Baltic at the moment are juvenile or including Seaton Pond, Dawdon escape. Many of them arrived before the and western Russia has led to an sub-adults which tend to wander Blast Beach, Boldon Flats, the Iceland gulls are badly really cold conditions occurred. exciting cold-weather influx of further and more frequently than South Gare and Burniston. named as they are actually from That, of course, raises the theory Arctic gulls to our coastline. experienced adults which are Three, plus an Iceland gull, Greenland and Canada. They are that birds are better than us at There have been numerous capable of surviving the harshest were at North Shields fish quay, slightly smaller and slimmer than forecasting long-term weather and sensibly move out well ahead of sightings over the past week of northern winter conditions. always a favoured foraging spot the glaucous gulls. Again, most for these large and impressive trouble. It’s an intriguing thought. of both glaucous and Iceland Glaucous gulls breed right of those which have occurred in visitors. Singles have occurred at gulls which have moved down across the high Arctic and then the same areas as their larger The strong gales of last a further dozen localities up the the North Sea to enjoy the drift southwards into northern cousins have been immatures. In weekend produced a few little auks and a very unseasonable comparatively mild conditions Europe during autumn. The pale Northumberland coast. Others recent years Iceland gulls have sooty shearwater off Whitburn. and good feeding opportunities coffee-coloured juveniles are those have turned up around Scotland’s tended to occur more frequent offered by our harbours, coastal which most often occur in Britain, coastlines. than glaucous gulls but this time towns and villages. These birds usually being attracted for Glaucous gulls, along with they have appeared in similar are often referred to as “white- obvious reasons to fishing ports. greater black-backed gulls, are numbers. winged gulls” because, unlike Up to three have been found at the heavyweight thugs, aggressively The cold conditions which have nearly all other members of fish quay at Hartlepool and four at dominating feeding spots. On produced these gulls are probably the family, they have no dark Filey. Others have been regularly Tuesday I watched one lunging, also responsible for the large