Tne BRIGNALL TRAGEDY. TEESDALE PLACE NAMES
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y 22nd, Mao , Wednesday, May 22nd, 1940. THE TEESDALE MERCURY. •••••" Tales of a Grandfather. the Ship Hotel, on the Bank, now known as Brignall Road assas,O1 and that 1h ,, rustic the Railway Hotel. Hannah Latham was poptdation had adopted. that iii iii id of TEESDALE PLACE NAMES. Itarnard Castl e present along with several of her acquaint- testifying to their satisfaction that though AN INTERESTING STUDY. was scored 01L TnE BRIGNALL TRAGEDY. ances, but only for a little while. The poor the murderer had escaped the hands of bust Middleton_ girl left quite early in the night to return human justice he had, at length passed to ocked up 103 not L ily \V. D. C110IT, PU6TMAsTEB.1 .A STORY OF THE EARLY NINETEENTH to Cross Lanes'..i.. It is known that she the bar of the Eternal to render an account In studying the lists of places which are laughingly declined the offer of a young of deeds done in the body. However much . CENTURY. in the roan' Castle postal area, it „has man, the son of a respectable farmer such ad incident Might be regretted, seeing Din.E.rox Si'. occurred to me how many of these place residing in the neighbourhood, to see her that it was directed against the reputation when it was more the custom than it is names convoy- a very apt description of the on Saturday. safely home. The good-looking, gay, and of an unconaemned and possibly innocent to-day' for people to spend their spare time town and the surrounding country. Anyone e. light-hearted girl called at Peggy Barker's, man, it yet remains a striking instance of in village churchyards—meditations among with a little imagination can visualise a whose nouse was fifty years ago occupied the abhorrence in which the unholy deed the tombs, as someone once expressed it- really true picture of the district. by Mr Michael Hobson, at ten o'clock. Said was head by the people of the district. -tore might have been a good many more For instance, a place named Barnard Peggy Barker to the buxom damsel, " Are In Lockhart's life of Sir Walter Scott, the nople acquainted with that neat pyramidal Castle must, of *course, have a castle, and is you not afraid to go home 7 " Hannah murder is referred to in a letter written by - `monument which stands in the corner of all indication of its historical associations. Startforth Churchyard and regards the replied, "Not a bit." It was said that two Sir Walter to Mr J. 13. S. Morritt, Rokeby young men who were present at the merry. Park,: in which the novelist says, " Your Its thoroughfares, Galgate tiallowgate), brutal murder near Brignall, on January Bridgegate, Broadgates, 'f horngate, and making joked with her about the supposed horrid story reminds me of one in Galway, 1st, 1813, of Hannah Latham. The perpe- Newgate, also convey some idea of its •t. 11. hlatighan, trator of the crime was never discovered, dangers of the road and proffered their ser- where the perpetrator of a similar enormity not hat. vices as an escort, but she laughingly on a poor idiot girl was discovered by means antiquity, the endings " gate " being and the monument was erected by i public formerly given to the main entrances orge. declined their offer, and they, inferring of a print of his foot which he left upon the to a subscription. town. '1'1le Batik is, of course, on a steep. hist lethwaite 20 y the story goes that Hannah that she was to be accompanied by some clay floor of the cottage in the death ••• more favoured suitor, did not press their struggle. It pleased HeaYen ! for nothing hill, and shows that the town lies on a hill- Latham, who was in domestic service at side. whilst the former allusion to Bridge- ... Brignall, obtained leave from her employer intentions furtlier.. short of a miracle could have done it) to The night was clear and starlit, and there enlighten the understanding of an old and gate indicates a river or stream running at ••. go to visit her friends in Barnard Castle, the bottom of the hill. " The Scarce " is ••• 12 where she had been brought up, on New was a sprinkling of snow on the ground. ram-headed sheriff who was usually nick- Nothing more was heard of the poor girl named leather-head.' rhe steps which he also an indication of the steep rise from the -. 0 'ear's Eve. She came to the town and river. The Market Cross, Market Place and returned to Brignall in the evening, but did until the next morning, when leer dead body took to discover the murderer were most ••0 was found lying under a hedge by the side sagacious. As the poor girl was pregnant Horsemarket denote that it is a market not get there and nothing more was seen or town. The Bowes Museum and Park indi- 0 of the Brignalll Road, near Castle Farm, (for it was not a case of violation) it was heard of her until the next day, when she cates that excellent facilities for study and was found lying by the roadside by George about two miles from Barnard Castle, her pretty clear that her paramour had done the throat having been severed from ear to ear. deed, and equably so that he must be a recreation are at hand, whilst the Barnard 108 Raine, a carrier between Barnard Castle Castle ;Secondary) School shows that a st le. Johnson and Arkengarthdale. There was a story abroad for many years native of the district. The sheriff caused that Mr Henry Henning, a Barnard Castle the minister to advertise from the pulpit educational facilities in the district are well The fund for erecting the memorial was provided for. • OCKERTON. raised by a Dr. Bradley, who was in prac- surgeon, while riding toward Cross Lanes that the girl would be buried on a particular in order to visit a patient, saw, about hall- day. and that all persons in the neighbour- Seven banks (including the Post Office on May 14th. tice at Barnard Castle at the time, and the Savings Bank) eater for the savings and inscription is as foliows : a-mile beyond Thorsgill, in the dim light of hood were invited to attend the funeral to New Year's morning, the body of d female show their detestation of such an enormous spendings of the community, whilst the 9. Murder, although it bath no tongue, will lying beside the road, and dismounting from crime as well as to evince their own names of 12 hotels show that the needs of 0 speak with most miraculous organ. his horse, discovered the tragedy, but that innocence. This was to bring the murderer the thirsty traveller or resident) are 111(1 11 (1 ... 3 This pedestal adequate catered for. tale was discarded in the light of a more II ... 3 to the funeral, it was thought. When- the is raised by voluntary subscriptions likely to be true statement that it was people were assembled in the kirk the doors "The Woods" ;if these were not open to to the memory of George Raine the carrier who came upon were locked by the sheriff's order and the the public the prefix " the •' would not be geiwrally used), and Deepdale give the im- -• 1 HANNAH LATHAM, the remains of the hapless servant lass. shoes of all the men examined, that of the 9 ••• •. 'Who fell the victim of a sanguinary villain It has been handed down upon what murderer being detected by the measure of pression of leafy walks and of a ^ slender in the Brignall Road within a mile of this rill " running ,between high .banks with ---- would appear to be good authority that there the foot, tread, etc., and a peculiarity in the trees and wild flowers growing on them ... 106. place, were footmarks indicating that the Oh-fated mode in which the sole of one of them had On the 1st of January, 1813, girl, after having been first seized by her been patched. The fellOw bore a most (but these places should be visited to get a ... 24 and in the nineteenth year of her age. assailant, had escaped from him, crossed excellent character; and had .committed this true conception of their natural beauty, ) . ... 13 111-fated orphan ! Though no parents' tear the hedge into the adjoining field, and run crime for no other reason than that, having • The Auction Mart signifies that farming larke Was fondly shed in anguish o'er thy bier, a short distance. She had then returned to been led accidentally into an intrigue with is carried on in the surrounding district. ••• Yet shall thy murderer, while on earth, The names of the sub-offices, viz : Cother- ... 28 the road, and while attempting to climb the this poor wretch, his pride revolted at the ... 31 remain fence on the opposite side had been ridicule which was likely to attend the dis- stone, Egglestone, Lartington, Mickleton, - The victim of Remorse, Despair and Pain. clutched by her pursuer, dragged back- covery." Lockhart adds : " The account of Middleton, and Whorlton note the ending " ton "), Suggest t hat these places were 101 The details of the story—as far as I can a ;ads, and relentlessly slain. The footsteps a parallel! atrocity in Galway and . the mode remember what was told to me about fifty of the murderer, deeply indented in the of its detection will show the reader from formerly regarded as towns, whilst Bowes urton 4 for 24, is indelibly associated with Dotheboys Hall, • years ago—are as follows : earth, were visible on each side of the poor what source Scott drew one of the most About the close of the 18th century, a girl as she lay, and it was -plain that the striking incidents in his 'Guy Mannering.' " ittrmortal'ised by Charles Dickens.