Bill's Walks

Gainford to Headlam

Approx. Distance: 11 miles

Start: Lord Nelson Pub, Gainford (GR NY 173168)

Click to view start position on Google Maps

Map: OS Explorer 304 – Darlington and Richmond

This walk commences at Gainford which we will see later in greater detail as we walk throught the village.

We leave the village to the east up Eden Lane and pass through Fields House to Cock Lane. A short distance to the east we take the track to Dyance farm which is the meeting place for five parishes detailed on the Gainford Parish Walks leaflet produced by the Parish Council under the Parish Paths Project along with Durham County Council. We now head North-West over an indistinct path and after crossing Headlam Beck we arrive at Headlam village, passing through the land of Headlam Hall. Pevsner describes this as a perfect example of a medium sized manor house of stone, which is Jacobean on one side and early 18th Century on two others. In the 16th Century the Headlam estate came into the possession of Thomas Birkbeck. His second son married Anne Brackenbury of nearby Selaby Hall (which will be passed later in the walk) and they were responsible for the construction of Headlam Hall in the early 17th Century. The main hall still contains a carved wooden fireplace with the Birkbeck coat of arms. The property then passed through several hands with a servants quarter being built in 1912 when the property was acquired by Lord & Lady Darlington (J A Pease MP) who lived there until the early 1940s. The property is now owned by the Robinson family who operate the hall as an upmarket country hotel.

We now proceed across the green in this attractive village to the pack horse bridge which is, as you would expect, a DOE listed bridge which is semi circular in shape. There is a length of stone-built causeway on either side. The span is 9 feet and the 12 inch parapets appear to have been added later. Pevsner dates the bridge as 17th Century or 18th Century but little else is known about the bridge or the route which it served, but it was probably on a North to South route which crossed the Tees by the ford at Gainford.

We leave the village by the North-West crossing three fields to arrive at a minor road which is crossed almost immediately to pick up a good track which, at the junction of paths, heads North to Ingleton village, visible to the North. Note the excellent old hedges hereabouts. We head West out of Ingleton to the edge of the village and, just after the road junction, we take a path to the South past a wind tower to Low Hulam. In just over half a mile we come to the hamlet of Langton. We now head West on the only footpath through a gate and along a good path to Langton Bank Wood, which we pass through to eventually emerge on to the Raby Estate. We take the hard road South here to Selaby Lane which is followed West to the ford over Langley Beck. Those of you who have done the West of Staindrop walk will have met this beck before much nearer its source. We now head South-East, on the left hand side of the beck through Selaby Park, with views of the hall to arrive at the A67 main road.

Crossing this road we go towards Gainford for a short distance and head down the footpath to Gainford Spa on the riverside. This well was discovered by miners digging for coal and led to the development of Gainford as a much bigger village. After sampling the water we stay on the riverside path which eventually comes back to the A67. The arrival of the railway in 1856 brought more visitors to the fashionable spa and houses were built to accommodate them but Gainford had a history long before that. The ford here was used by the Brigantes on the way to their fort at Stanwick to the South and there was also a ferry here until the 1950s. The site of this is behind the fine 13th Century church of St Mary built from stones salvaged from Piercebridge Roman Fort. Entering Gainford we pass Gainford Hall built in 1603. In the 19th Century this house was in ruins but happily was restored to the fine building that you see now. Note the big circular dovecote and the Tuscan column. This was originally at Stanwick Hall and was built as a memorial to the Peace of Aachen of 1748.

We now pass High Row to arrive at the superb village green which is enhanced by the fact that the village is now bypassed. A particularly interesting building is the bow-fronted Gainford Academy, founded by the minister Wm Bowman in 1818. Its most famous pupil was Arthur Stanley Jefferson who achieved fame as Stan Laurel. Wm Bowman was also instrumental in the building of a gasworks on the riverbank which lit the village until 1950. The vicar’s son here became the British Consul to San Marino, earning the title of Baron Montalbo and the name can be seen on the village hall donated to the village by his sister.