Walks 41 what’son Walks Low Dinsdale and the Loop

Walk Information famously eloped from a window large field to reach a stile in the along the Quayside at Newcastle. corner of the field (large piles of Distance: 10 km (6.25 miles) Low Dinsdale was the main earth/rubble). Head over this stile Time: 2-3 hours settlement in medieval times as it and through the belt of woodland, Maps: OS Explorer Sheet 304 boasts a fine church, dedicated to immediately after which, turn left & Richmond St John the Baptist, which dates along the grassy track along the Parking: Very limited parking back to at least Norman times edge of the field (belt of woodland available at St John the Baptist although heavily restored in on your left) to join Sockburn Lane Church, Low Dinsdale. There is Victorian times. (road). roadside parking available on the grassy verges around Low From Low Dinsdale, our route Turn left along this road and Dinsdale, although please park heads south and follows the 2follow as it bends round to the considerately and do not obstruct Way to reach the 19th right at Liberty Lodge and then gateways or access. Century Bridge across the continue along tor road (enclosed Refreshments: None available Tees, set in a wooded gorge below a by hedges) for 1 km to reach the Terrain: Quiet country lanes, small Victorian church. This is All farm buildings at High Sockburn. tracks and field paths (crops). Saints Church, which is situated in Turn left along the track through How to get there: Low Dinsdale can North but once belonged the white gate (signpost Teesdale be reached via the road through to the historic parish of Sockburn. Way) opposite the brick-built Hurworth-on-Tees and . The ancient All Saints Church converted farm buildings (The Caution: Take care walking along (private) on the Sockburn Granary) and head down along the the roads. Do not touch the giant peninsula is now in ruins, but can track to cross the by hogweed. trace its history back to pre- way of an ornate Victorian iron Conquest days and once witnessed bridge (Girsby Bridge). After the Points of interest the ordination of Anglo-Saxon bridge follow the clear track up to bishops, and was later used by the the right to reach the small The Sockburn Loop of the River Vikings as a religious site. Victorian All Saints Church. Tees is a huge meander of the river that brings a narrow part of the old The walk Follow the track up passing historic into 3around the church and continue ; in places this loop From the turning circle in front along the lane for a short distance is so narrow that it almost forms an 1 of St John the Baptist Church at then take the footpath to the left island. This area is rich in history. Low Dinsdale, head left along the opposite the dilapidated farmhouse Almost 2,000 years ago the Roman road, passing the Old Rectory on (signpost ). Follow the road, known as Rikenild Street, your left and then the large barns path straight on across the field came this way en route from York of Manor Farm, where you follow (crops – walk in single file) and to the forts of Newcastle and South the road bending sharply round to through a gap in a hedge (wooden Shields – the end of this walk heads the right then, opposite the large post), after which follow the rough along a tree-lined road that follows barns on your right, turn left along track across two more fields then, boundary on your left) and through the gate and walk straight on the course of this old Roman road. a concrete lane through green half way across the second field a gate at the end of this field through the enclosure in front of This route remained one of the metal gates (waymarker). Follow (with Girsby Hall Farm across to (waymarker) then continue across the cottage (caution: keep dogs on main roads across the Tees until this lane straight on for 750 metres your right) you join a clearer track the next field again keeping close to leads – hens) then on across the medieval times when the road to reach the entrance to Spa Wells which you follow straight on, then the field perimeter on your left. As next enclosure/garden (fence on moved further west to cross the house on your left, where you where this track bends sharp left you approach the wood that juts your right) to join a lane beside a river at Croft. continue straight on along the lane after a short distance, head straight out across your path, bear off to row of brick-built houses. Follow for a further 350 metres to reach a on through undergrowth to quickly the right across the middle of the this lane straight on then round to Following the Norman Conquest junction of lanes (Fish Locks house reach a stile over a fence beside a field (crops) along a narrow path the right to reach the road (Roman the manor, centred on Dinsdale, down to your left). Carry straight gate. Drop down the hillside, (wooden waymarker) to reach a road). Turn left along the road and was given to the Siward family, who on along the lane ahead towards bearing slightly left, then up to a gate in a fence at the end of this follow it over the bridge across the subsequently built a fortified ‘Ashes’ and follow this for 400 gap in a fence, after which head field just before Hill House. Walk River Tees back to reach the manor house at Low Dinsdale as metres to reach a choice of three straight on along a narrow path straight on along the grassy track Church of St John the Baptist at well as a ‘motte’ castle on the north lanes/tracks at the entrance to across the field (heading towards passing Hill House on your right to Low Dinsdale. bank of the Tees at present-day Ashes (cattle grid). Take the right- White House), through a gap in the reach a small gate in a fence just Middleton One Row; earthworks hand track of the three hedge then on passing to the right beyond the house, after which walk Mark Reid from these long-lost medieval tracks/lanes (waymarker) and side of the farmhouse (White straight on across two fields to Author of ˜The Inn Way buildings can still be clearly seen in follow it bending to the right House). reach a gate/stile that leads into guidebooks the fields around Low Dinsdale. through a small belt of woodland Crosshill Wood. Follow the path Over the centuries the Siward then rising up to a double gate The path continues straight on straight on through this woodland, family changed their name to across your path that leads out 4just to the right of the at the end of which the path Surtees, which is Norman French onto a field. After the gate, carry farmhouse through a gap in the emerges onto a large field. Walk Unique corporate activity days, for ‘on Tees’, and produced several straight on along the rough, rutted hedge (waymarker) that leads out straight on down across the large navigation skills and team building well-known family members track alongside the woodland on onto a field, where you carry on field to reach a gate immediately to experiences in the Great Outdoors. including Bettie Surtees, who your right along the edge of the across the field (keep to the field the left of a cottage. Head through teamwalking.co.uk Countrydiary Birdwatch

ATURAL history programmes on landing on WALLOWS are without doubt the Considering last year’s poor breeding television provide some wonderful the leaves. favourite summer birds of many folk. season, the cold and late spring here and a N insights into Britain’s wildlife but, The S But several people have asked me lack of insect food it’s not really surprising because they so often focus on the most caterpillar about a distinct shortage of these that numbers are down. spectacular mammals and birds, they do that attractive birds in their areas. One farmer A fledgling peregrine from the Tees give a distorted picture of the variety of hatches told me that he has only four nesting pairs industrial breeding site was found dead our fauna. There’s a host of animals that is from their compared with the usual seven or eight after an early flying accident, but hopefully inconspicuous, but exquisitely beautiful eggs lives in a web spun under nettle around his buildings. Others have spoken other young will be more successful on that seldom appear on our TV screens. So, leaves. Many other micro-moths are only of a general impression of seeing far few their hazardous initial flights. for example, the insects known as micro- active at dusk and one of the most birds than normal. On a much more optimistic note, avocets, moths are present everywhere in the beautiful is the 20-plume moth. This often I think they’re right. Around my own countryside and in every garden, but it’s breeds on flower buds of honeysuckle in those elegant pied waders with upturned village where we normally have upwards of bills, seem to be having a good season. unlikely that they’ll feature in wildlife gardens and settles on lit windows at dusk, 30 nesting pairs I’ve only about 20 occupied documentaries, even though there are spreading out its wings, which look like Well-grown chicks have been reported from sites and there are certainly far fewer than Greenabella marsh, and pairs at WWT more than 1,600 species in Britain, most of tiny feathers, in a semi-circular fan on the normal feeding over the gardens and fields. which can be found in our region. window pane. Washington colony had ten young this Pairs are in all the regular successful week. Micro-moths are sometimes so small that It’s often easiest to spot micro-moths nesting places sites, but are missing from you can only really appreciate their beauty through the activities of their caterpillars, other, perhaps less suitable, sites where As usual, mid-summer rarities were few, and complexity if you peer at them because many feed inside leaves and breeding takes place sporadically. Any but a moulting drake Ring-necked Duck through a powerful magnifying glass. One produce a conspicuous pale marking. The comments on your local situation would be commuted between Catterick Racecourse of the commonest, that’s very active just most familiar of these is the bramble leaf welcome and can be sent to me at lake and Scorton gravel pits. A female red- now, is called the nettle-tap moth. Stand in miner, whose larva chews through the soft [email protected] necked phalarope was the star find on a pelagic trip from the Tyne and an alert front of a patch of stinging nettles on a tissues inside the leaf, leaving a Swallow population can fluctuate widely warm afternoon and you’ll probably see meandering ‘mine tunnel’ that grows birding commuter found a singing because of weather and feeding conditions rosefinch at the Kenton Bankfoot Metro them swerving from side to side during wider as the larva nears maturity. on migration to and from southern Africa, their courtship flights and sometimes station in Newcastle. Phil Gates during which many can perish. Ian Kerr