ONE of the questions floated in the recent Memories article about the Winch Bridge - Britain's first suspension bridge - in upper Teesdale was why it was called winch?
Robin Fletcher emails with a suggestion. "There was a very interesting individual called Nathaniel John Winch (1768-1838) who was arguably the most active botanist of his time in this part of the world.
"One wonders if the bridge could be named after him!
"There is a fairly detailed account of his life in GG Graham’s “Flora and Vegetation of County Durham”, a massive volume of 530 odd pages with only one flower illustrated!"
Not having Mr Graham's fine tome to hand, I'll have to make do with the internet and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessed via Darlington library's site).
Nathaniel John Winch was born in Middlesex but, aged 22, became apprentice to a hostman (I don't know what a hostman is but guess it is related to a hostler or ostler who was a stableman at an inn) on Christmas Eve 1780 to Robert Lisle in Newcastle.
Winch obviously did very well for himself. By 1805 he was elected Sheriff of Newcastle and was sitting on the town council. He was also an acknowledged expert on the native plants of Northumberland and Durham, publishing a Botanist's Guide to them in this year.
In 1805, he was in correspondence with William Backhouse (1779-1844). William was the third generation of Darlington bankers. He won a medal for his forest-planting work in remote parts of Weardale - at St John's, I think, to the south of Wolsingham. He, too, was a keen indigenous botanist: hence his correspondence with Mr Winch.
In fact, Mr Winch was too keen a botanist. He studied plants and neglected his business as an iron merchant and anchor smith to such an extent that in 1808, he was declared bankrupt.
It didn't effect his standing in the North-East world of botany. His collection is in the Hancock Museum in Newcastle, I think, and he had an Oriental sub-species of plant named after him: winchia. But did he have Britain's first suspension bridge also named in his honour? I don't know...
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