Additional Information

THE GREAT NORTH ROAD/THE KING’S WAY/HIGH STREET

As mentioned, the route across the river Tees between North Yorkshire  and County Durham was a major highway and one of three main crossing points from York to Durham (the others being at Croft and Pountees).  Indeed, until the establishment of the toll road to Darlington in the eighteenth century, it may be described as the Great North Road.  The river could be crossed by ford and ferry and it is likely to have been in use before 1066, leading to the (probable) legend that the body of St Cuthbert was carried across in 995 on its way to its final resting place in Durham.

The small settlement of Eryholme must have witnessed a great deal of traffic, including Kings and noblemen, diplomats and armies, both English and Scottish.  It was reported that there was ‘usually a boat ready for horses and all’ and deposition evidence in 1360 describes several merchants and artisans with their goods and carts going past the village on their way to and from the Darlington Fair.  The inhabitants may well have profited from this traffic although the large entourages of kings exercising their right to supply themselves wherever they went may not have been so welcome.  However they would have seen, for example, Henry IV in 1448, ‘right merry on his pilgrimage’ on his way to Durham, as well as several bishops of Durham going to and from Westminster, including a future Pope (Pius II) in 1436.  One very important traveller, whose journey is documented, was Princess Margaret, the sister of Henry VIII, who in 1503 was journeying to Edinburgh to marry James IV of Scotland.  With her huge entourage, it must have been a spectacular sight.  From Northallerton she was accompanied by the sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir James Stangways, as well as the local gentry and was met, perhaps in the middle of the river, by Sir Ralph Bowes and a company of 40 Durham men on horseback.  She then stayed the night at Neasham Priory.

In the next century the villagers would have seen another spectacular event when the new bishop of Durham, John Cosin, and his cavalcade passed through on his way for his ceremonial entry into the Palatinate.  It was noted by a member of the entourage that, in August 1661, the high sheriff, the whole of the gentry and the militia-horse of Durham were present ()one thousand horse in all, all of whom moved into the middle of the river to meet  the bishop.   Here ‘the usual ceremony’ was performed.  The bishop himself recalled that on his ‘first entry through the river of Tease….  there was scarce any water to be seen ‘for the multitude of men and horse that filled it’.  This was the well-known presentation of the falchion, a ceremony that still takes place today when there is a new bishop of Durham.  It now, however, occurs on the middle of Croft Bridge between the bishop and the Mayor of Darlington, with considerable less pomp and ceremony.

Eryholme did, however, have the obligation to maintain the stretch of the ‘king’s highway’ from Entercommon to the ford and in April 1605, for example, the inhabitants were presented to the justices of the peace for not repairing the ‘high street and king’s way’ at ‘Break-howse’.  John Idson left 10 shillings in his will in 1638 for its repair and was probably not the only one as it was considered a communal duty and act of philanthropy. It certainly seemed to be regarded as the preferred main route north and south in the seventeenth century and is depicted in the first set of English road maps produced by John Ogilby in 1675.  He gave directions for travellers on the Great North Road, though failed to mention the risk of highwaymen who after 1660 lurked between Hurworth, Neasham and Darlington. One of the most notorious was a man named Tomlinson who murdered Mary Allinson of Eryholme in Oxney field, as noted in the parish register, and ‘barbarously’ slaughtered’ John Neesom in 1663.  The travellers on this route, avoiding potholes, would have gone through countryside not dissimilar from today, passing settlements which still exist.

Other less fortunate travellers were vagrants.  It was the law in the eighteenth century that the homeless destitute should be returned to their place of birth and in 1795, for example, more than 500 passed through Eryholme, being on the northern border of the designated route north and south.  This was probably the peak but traffic was very heavy the decades before and after 1800 when poverty and vagrancy were widespread throughout the country.  Passes were developed and contractors employed to convey this wretched cargo of mainly women and children, usually being moved north, together with a large number of Scots who had been expelled from London.  The numbers gradually declined and stopped altogether with the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834.

Until the second half of the eighteenth century, the highway continued to be the main route connecting York and Durham though it was not always passable and lives were lost in sudden flash floods.  John Whitfield of Birkby, for example, ‘who was drowned’, was buried by the curate.  On the other hand,  the legendary short-horn cattle breeder, John Maynard (1744-1826),  at the age of 70 reputedly rode his hack, ‘Black Tom’ to and from Newcastle in one day ( a journey of 80 miles).  Arriving back in Neasham he found the Tees in flood and rode his horse into the high ford, which swam across and landed at the low ford 500 yards downstream. (This was probably the great flood of 1815).  At other times droughts made it very difficult for the ferry to operate as did severe frosts which froze the river

Traffic began to decrease with the establishment of the Northallerton to Darlington Turnpike in 1745 and the tollgate at Entercommon.  The consequent improved road surface and availability of stage coaches meant that the crossing of the Tees became concentrated at Croft Bridge and the village eventually became bypassed.  However, the ford continued to be used by locals and it was noted in 1856 that the river could still be crossed ‘by a ferry or by a broad and safe ford’, though the ferry, kept in a boathouse next to the Fox and Hounds in Neasham,  was discontinued twenty years later.  Nevertheless, what was once was a very important national road was still maintained, although the access to the ford, as well as the ford itself, was not.  Even so, it is still used by local farmers on tractors and several residents recall wading across to the pub when the river was low.  Rather different from the pomp and ceremony of events centuries ago.

The King’s Highway as it is today.