A BADLY botched wall, partially obscured by a crude metal fire escape, had us all excited a couple of weeks ago, because it was the rediscovered remains of Darlington's oldest Methodist chapel.

Built in 1779, this chapel can be seen in a private car park off Commercial Street, at the rear of the George Inn.

But Darlington was rather late off the mark in building a Methodist chapel, as is shown high up in Teesdale, where stands the world's oldest chapel in continuous use.

We have to be very careful with the terminology here. Just as the Stockton and Darlington Railway is strictly the world's first publicly-owned steam-powered passenger railway, so the chapel at Newbiggin-in-Teesdale is the world's oldest in continuous use. Continuous means "unceasing"; continual means "recurring frequently", and so the world's oldest Methodist chapel in continual use is in Bristol. It is a few years older than Newbiggin, but for 70 years it was used by another denomination until the Methodists reclaimed it.

But they have been coming unceasingly to Newbiggin since 1759 when, on August 30, a plot of land was bought for £5 by three of John Wesley's travelling preachers and four local leadminers.

The top of Teesdale is all leadmining. Middleton-in-Teesdale, the capital of the district, was almost wholly built by the London Lead Company.

The chapel at nearby Newbiggin was built for £61 13s 5d to provide for the spiritual needs of the leadminers. It opened in 1760 and was first visited by Wesley on June 2, 1772.

"We rode to Newbiggin-in-Teesdale," he wrote in his diary. "The people were deeply attentive but I think not deeply affected."

The wooden pulpit from which he preached is still in the chapel.

Wesley returned to the dale on a couple of further occasions, writing of the spectacular High Force on May 12, 1779: "After preaching in Teesdale, I went a little out of my way to see one of the wonders of nature. The River Tees rushes down between two rocks and falls 60 feet perpendicular into a basin of water 60ft deep."

The heyday of the lead mining industry in Teesdale was around the time that Middleton was connected to the North Eastern Railway, in 1868. Middleton's population rose from nearly 800 in 1801 to nearly 2,400 at its peak in 1871. Similarly, Newbiggin's population bloomed from 281 to 645, and this emboldened the congregation to enlarge their chapel in 1860 so that it would seat 500 - an extraordinary number when viewed in today's context of Newbiggin as a scattering of a handful of white-painted houses.

Over the top from Newbiggin is Ireshopeburn, where High House Chapel vies for the title of the oldest chapel in continuous use.

However, its earliest date is July 2, 1760, when Christopher Hopper - one of Wesley's travelling preachers who ten months earlier had spent a fiver buying land in Newbiggin - helped purchase the site.

Therefore, its claim to fame is that it is "the oldest Methodist chapel in continuous weekly use".

Weardale, too, was in prime leadmining territory, and a historian recorded in 1840: "The High House on a Sunday afternoon is a spectacle worth beholding; here you may see assembled from 600 to 1,000 good-looking, fresh coloured, and well dressed persons."

So, in 1872 it, too, was extended to accommodate its new-found population.

As well as holding services, today, both Newbiggin and High House contain museum areas. Newbiggin's looks at the history of Methodism in Teesdale and of leadmining, whereas the Weardale Museum at High House includes more social history and a collection of local minerals and fossils.

Newbiggin's Easter service is at 8.30am on Sunday. At other times, keys are available from the Middleton Tourist Information Centre and the Alston Road Garage, in Middleton.

High House is open from 2pm to 5pm on all four days of this weekend's holida, or call (01388) 537433 for appointments.

l With thanks to Mary Lowes and Peter Ryder for their help with this article.

*Secrets of Doctor's Tunnel revealed

THE Doctor's Tunnel was long and dark, and rumours in Bishop Auckland said that it was once the scene of a gruesome murder or a terrible suicide.

Back in February, Janine Wilthew asked for more information about the tunnel that was in Finkle Street, behind Fore Bondgate, before the shopping centre was built.

According to Bishop Auckland historian Barbara Laurie, the tunnel was originally part of the footpath around the medieval green. Over time, the land in this area fell into the ownership of the Spencer family of Helmington Hall, a 17th Century manor house near Hunwick. The Spencers built an important house facing on to Fore Bondgate, with gardens stretching back to Tenters Street.

However, the garden was bisected by the ancient pathway.

The Spencers then added an extension to their house, which bridged over the top of the pathway.

But the extension was low, and the ground beneath it had to be hollowed out so that people did not bang their heads. The path became a tunnel.

"Even so, you had to bow your head," says Barbara.

"The unnerving thing about Doctor's Tunnel was that you could not see light ahead of you as you walked in, and children were scared. This led to a lot of rumours of murders, but I'm not sure that any were true."

When the Spencers' star faded, their big house became known as the Assembly Rooms - upstairs was a large meeting room and downstairs became the Shepherd's Inn.

The story of the tunnel now takes on board a doctor who was also a magistrate. Being a posh sort of a fellow, the doctor did not want his poorest patients calling at his house, so, when he had to be in town on court days, he held a paupers' surgery in the back parlour of the Shepherd's Inn. The patients had to wait for him to finish his business on the bench, and so they queued outside the pub's back door in the Doctor's Tunnel.

Barbara tells the story in her books Bishop Auckland in the 1850s and The Changing Face of Bishop Auckland.

Published: ??/??/2004

Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505062.