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In 1841, a footbridge called St John's Bridge was erected. It was probably the one nearest to where Percy Beck joins the River Tees; nearby, there were stepping stones and a ford that can still be seen (1). The first bridge has been replaced from time to time; the present one was carved from a single oak tree.
The path upstream was once known as the King's Walk. It passes below Woolhouse Farm, standing on the top of a precipitous bank (2) above Percy Beck, which many years ago, was actually called Woolhouse Beck. The first ground on which Barnard Castle Cricket Club played its matches was at Woolhouse Farm.
The highest waterfall on the beck (3) plunges into a pool in which a local resident, Henry Hilton (1768-1843) used every morning to take his daily bath, breaking the ice , when necessary, to enter the water. The pool, which is over six feet deep, was for many years afterwards, known as Hilton's Hole.
The King's Walk merges with the path formerly known as the Cleveland Walk (4) which took its name from the Duke of Cleveland,
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a title conferred on the owner of Raby Castle in 1833. At its southern end, the path joins the town at Raby Avenue, and at its northern end, it passes the Golf Club and joins Harmire Road.
Between its two bridges, the path is crossed by an ancient sunken track (5) whose course can be traced curving towards a ford. The track was once one of the organised woodland paths, but before that, it was probably a route along which farm animals were driven to and from the market town.
The Cleveland Walk turns at right-angles as it is joined by another path (6) which runs beside a little unnamed stream. Today this path joins Woodside, a road on the edge of town, but originally it joined a field path which led to the town's London and North Eastern railway passenger station.
A disused railway bridge, opened in 1861, crosses high above the Cleveland Walk (7). It carried trains from Barnard Castle either to a terminus at Middleton-in-Teesdale, or across the Pennines to the west
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of the country.
Whether at the beginning or end of a walk in Flatts Woods, it is worth looking at two interesting features within a short distance of the mouth of Percy Beck.
One is the aqueduct (8) constructed in 1893 to convey water from reservoirs in upper Teesdale to towns and industry on Teesside. The bridge provides an impressive view of the castle and river.
The site of the town's former gasworks (9) contains works of sculpture and an information board relating to the site's connection with Roman times and aspects of the River Tees.
© Alan Wilkinson
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