See what life was like in Cotherstone in Teesdale in 19th century

But now this small village has had a remarkably big book written about it. The book, written by Paul and David Rabbitts, a son and father team whose connection to Cotherstone goes back to 1946, is crammed full of an amazing number of old pictures and loads of fascinating facts and stories about it.

Cotherstone might only be small but it turns out to have a long and varied history as a quick flick through the book reveals…

East Green, Cotherstone, on an Edwardian postcard

It sits near the confluence of the Tees and the Balder, and it is their meeting that has carved out The Hagg, one of the most unusual features of the village. The word “hagg” means “land cleared of trees and brushwood”, and in Cotherstone The Hagg is “a great natural amphitheatre of striking beauty, covered with a carpet of rich green herbage.” It was common pasture, and in Hagg House lived an old lady who often went out poaching dressed as a witch…

Victorian visitors to the Fairy Cupboards

Another natural feature of Cotherstone is the Fairy Cupboards, which drew visitors from far and wide. These cupboards on the bank of the Tees, beneath Percy Myre Crag, were described by the Teesdale Mercury in 1916 as being “a series of caves…by rustics named when nature’s ways were little understood”.

The Hagg Gates, Cotherstone

On the high ground above The Hagg are the remains of Cotherstone Castle. The castle was built around 1090 after Teesdale had been ravaged by the Scots. In 1201, the Fitzhugh family were granted permission to crenellate, or fortify, the castle, but that didn’t prevent it from being trashed once more by the Scots. Now it is just a few grassy mounds and a couple of piles of stones in a field – although many village houses probably contain building matter liberated from the castle.

Cotherstone castle 100 years ago: now all that remains is a pile of stones in a field

The Fox and Hounds on West Green, opposite the Hagg Gates

The ”Legend of Cotherstone” concerns George, the 7th Baron Fitzhugh, who, in 1512, was 25 and a very keen huntsman. One day, on his way to join a hunting party, he was stopped by a crippled old woman who said: “I have come to warn you not to hunt this day…keep away from Percy Myre Crag.” Lord George agreed to keep on the other side of the river from the crag, but he endured a fruitless, frustrating day until that evening, a stag emerged and the chase was on. It crossed the river with the hounds hard behind and dashed up Percy Myre Crag. It didn’t stop at the top but disappeared over the cliff into thin air; the hounds on its heels didn’t stop and also disappeared over the cliff into thin air; Lord George on his charger pulled on his reins and couldn’t stop so he too disappeared over the cliff never to be seen again – just as the old lady had foreseen.

West Green, Cotherstone

Manor House on East Green is the oldest inhabited house in the village, dating from the early 17th Century but on the site of an earlier dwelling. It is said to have secret tunnels – in the plural, no less – leading to the castle.

Cotherstone station on the Tees Valley Railway

The Tees Valley Railway, from Barnard Castle to Middleton-in-Teesdale, opened on May 12, 1868, and Cotherstone, a dales farming village, was reborn as a tourist attraction. It became known as “Little Sunderland” such was its popularity with the people of that city, and in 1903, the Sunderland Echo described it as “the Rhine in miniature” and said there was easily enough to do to fill a month’s summer holiday. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Cotherstone was full of rented apartments, lodging houses, tearooms, pubs and at least 12 shops catering for the tourist trade. The village’s population had been 561 and falling in 1861 but peaked at 701 in 1921 due to Cotherstone’s popularity.

However, after the Second World War, Sunderland’s joy at staycating in a nearby dale disappeared. The Sunderland Echo said in 1950 that “a 20th Century version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin in the guise of prosperity and industry has robbed Cotherstone’s sandstone cottages and grey-slated houses of the sound of children’s laughter and baby squeakings”. The wealthier tourists in motor cars had found somewhere else to go. This coincided with Cotherstone station being downgraded to an unmanned halt in 1954 and the railway closing altogether in 1964. Now its trackbed offers a pleasant, easy walk over a couple of stunning viaducts to the delight of modern tourists.

The Red Lion was the last thatched building in Cotherstone

Cotherstone’s houses had traditionally been covered in “black thatch”. Heather was collected in bundles – or “threaves” – on Cotherstone Moor and spread out on the roofs where it was pegged down by “spelks” – bent hazel twigs sharpened at both ends. Heather thatch swelled in wet weather, sealing any gaps. However, the arrival of the railway mean Cumbrian and Welsh slate became available, and thatched died out with the Red Lion (which is dated 1737) being the last thatched building in the 1930s.

The cottage on fire in 1912

In 1912, a heather-thatched house and byre burned down and were replaced by a garage and petrol station where you could also rent a TV set. The garage closed in the late 1990s.

John Clarkson was a provision merchant at Featherstone House, Cotherstone

In Woden Croft, a large house on the edge of the village, there was once a school, in which 150 boys were “educated”. They slept up to five to a bed, they had no holidays, their “recreation” was working in the fields. Their water came from a trough and as they had no towels, they dried themselves on their clothes. This was the sort of “Yorkshire school” to which parents in the south sent children so they were out of sight and out of mind until Charles Dickens visited Teesdale an exposed the practice in Nicholas Nickleby.

Lancelands (above) is an arts and crafts villa built in 1910 for Ernest Lingford whose Quaker family ran Joseph Lingford & Son of Bishop Auckland, which famously made baking powder. His son, Herbert, was granted exemption from combatant service in the First World War because, as a Quaker, he was a conscientious objector. Herbert joined the Friends Ambulance Unit and served on hospital ships in Greece and Malta.

The Quaker influence runs deep in Cotherstone. In 1829, Francis Gibson from the Quaker banking and brewing family of Saffron Walden, married Elizabeth Pease, daughter of Edward “the Father of the Railways”. Immediately, the Darlington Peases tapped into Francis’ wealth and he helped them buy the salt marshes on which they found Middlesbrough that year. Francis and Elizabeth lived mostly in Essex but they always holidayed in County Durham during the summer, especially at Cotherstone where, from 1843, they owned Balder Grange. Francis died in 1858, when the Darlington & Stockton Times dramatically reported: “Prostrated by successive attacks of paralysis, he was aware that the ‘undeniable messenger on the pale horse’ was before the door and he died as he had lived in the full confession and comfort of his Christian faith.” Although an incomer, he was clearly besotted with the dale village. In his diary on April 15, 1834, he wrote: “Walked by Lartington to Cotherstone. Luxuriant pastures. Tees banks majestic. Fine distances up and down the bends of the Tees at Fairy Cupboards. As fine a river scene as I remember.”

Cotherstone: A Village in Teesdale by Paul and David Rabbitts is published by Amberley for £15.99

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