Crossing Peg Powler’s beat

The section of road from Girsby to Over Dinsdale is marked on the OS map as ‘Roman Road’. During the 18th century Gainford Antiquarian, John Cade, studied the Roman Roads of the north and theorised that a Roman road ran from the Humber estuary to the River Tyne. Cade thought that the road may have been an extension of Ryknild or Ickneild Street, a road that ran from Gloucestershire to South Yorkshire. Cade placed the crossing point of the Tees at Sockbridge. The Roman Road became known and is still referred to Cade’s Road.

In the 1920’s Archaeologist OGS Crawford took a look at the area and thought that the crossing point of the was more likely be Middleton One Row at the site of a medieval bridge known as Pountey’s Bridge. A reliable late nineteenth century source reported timber piles and abutments being visible at the site. An earlier report states that a large number of squared Stones being found in the river.

Recent work by the Mid Tees Research Project has discredited Crawford’s theory and moved the search for Cade’s crossing eastwards to a bend in the Tees close to Newsham, where at least three separate river crossings once existed.

The modern road leads to the bridge over the Tees at Low Dinsdale. The bridge was originally built in 1850 by the Surtees family and operated as a toll bridge. In 1955 the bridge was taken over by the North Riding County Council and the original trussed iron beams were replaced with steel beams rolled at the Cargo Fleet Iron Works, a concrete deck was cast then over the beams. The bridge was further upgraded in 1993.

In the churchyard of St John the Baptist at Low Dinsdale is the lower portion of an eleventh century cross shaft. The shaft is carved on all four faces but quite weathered. There are other carved stones within the church but this church is always locked when I visit.

Sources

Bridges over the Tees. The Cleveland Industrial Archaeologist. Research report No. 7 C. H. Morris. 2000

Mid Tees Research Project

Archaeologia, or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity Vol.7

The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture

Map Extract reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Hob Headless

A sprite of a very malevolent disposition, named Hob Headless, used formerly to infest the roads between Hurworth and Neasham ; but had it not in his power to cross the Kent, a little stream flowing into the Tees at the latter place, being subject, we may suppose, to the same law which once prevailed in the supernatural world in Scotland, whereby, under some mysterious penalty, even the witches durst not, in their nocturnal raids, cross a running stream.

Hob used to go as far as the Millstone Bridge, on the Darlington road, but never was seen past that place. A man named Robert Bone, usually called Bobby Byens, was the last person who saw Hob Headless, who was exorcised many years ago, and laid under a large stone, formerly on the road side. There he was to remain for ninety-nine years and a day and should any luckless person happen to sit down on that stone, it was verily believed that he would be unable to quit it for ever. But when Mr. Anthony Moss, of West Middleton, place, the stone was smashed up by the mason’s labourer, and part of it was used as a foundation stone. There is, or was, another Hob at Coniscliffe, on the other side of Darlington ; but no particulars regarding him have been learned.

Legends & Superstitions of the County of Durham

William Brockie 1886