Piercebridge is a village and civil parish in the borough of Darlington and the

ceremonial county The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...

of Durham, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 113. It is situated a few miles west of the town of

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

. It is on the site of a Roman fort of AD 260–270, which was built at the point where Dere Street crossed the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...

. Part of the fort is under the village green. The village is sited where the York- Newstead Roman road known as Dere Street crosses the

. The excavated Roman fort is open to the public and the remains of

Piercebridge Roman Bridge Piercebridge Roman Bridge is the ruin of a Roman bridge over the River Tees, northern England. It is near the villages of Cliffe (North Yorkshire) and Piercebridge, County Durham. The most recent excavations were by Channel 4's Time Team in ...

over the Tees now lie around south of the current course of the river, approximately east of Piercebridge, at the east side of

Cliffe, Richmondshire Cliffe is a small village and civil parish in Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. A stream called the Glen runs through the village to the River Tees, Tees. It is in the Teesdale and Yorkshire Dales national park. It is about ...

Toponym

Piercebridge is named after its Roman bridge or ''brigg'': in 1104 it was ''Persebrig''; in 1577 it was ''Priestbrigg''. It is thought that ''pierce'' comes from ''pershe'', meaning osiers, perhaps because the bridge was at least partly made of osier twigs in 1050 when the name is first recorded. Alternative suggested meanings, of "priest" and the name "Piers", would be too modern in origin for such an old place name.

History

Roman

The Romans built a fort here to defend the crossing against the

Brigantes The Brigantes were Ancient Britons who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England. Their territory, often referred to as Brigantia, was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire. The Greek geogr ...

. The Roman fort known as ''Magis'', ''Morbium'' or ''Vinovium'' is now located under the village green. It was sited adjacent to Dere Street, at the point where the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

crossed the

. The fort was occupied continuously from about 70 CE to at least the fifth century. A civilian settlement was to the east of the fort in Tofts Field. A Roman bath house was incorporated into St Mary's chapel (now on private land). Archaeological television programme '' Time Team'' has been here in 2009, attracted by

Piercebridge Roman Fort Piercebridge Roman Fort (possibly originally known as ''Morbium'' or ''Vinovium'') is a scheduled ancient monument situated in the village of Piercebridge on the banks of the River Tees in modern-day County Durham, England. There were Romans h ...

in 2009. Following the departure of the Romans in 410CE, the area in and around the fort remained inhabited for about another century. The plain it sits on in the

Tees Valley Tees Valley is a mayoral combined authority and Local enterprise partnership area in northern England, around the River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley. The LEP was established in 2011 and the combined authority was established i ...

was the site of Battle of Catraeth. The kingdom of Catraeth was composed of the descendants of the

Medieval

There was no permanent inhabitation in the area until the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

s arrived in the mid 11th century.

16th century onwards

There was no medieval Piercebridge parish, but there was a chapel recorded in 1546. The name of White Cross Farm and cottage may come from the 17th century apocryphal tale that one of the Dukes of Cleveland demanded the whitewashing of houses on his land so that he could recognise his own property should he require shelter during a storm while hunting. The 18th-century farmhouse, Piercebridge Grange, may be on the site of a monastic grange. It was tenanted by James Rawe, gentleman, in 1847. It is now a Grade II listed building, but was derelict by 2008. The

Battle of Piercebridge The Battle of Piercebridge was fought on 1 December 1642 in County Durham, England, during the First English Civil War. The Earl of Newcastle was advancing with an army of 6,000 from Newcastle upon Tyne to York to reinforce the local Royalists. ...

was partly fought on the bridge, when on 1 December 1642 a small Royalist contingent including William Cavendish defended it against Parliamentarians led by Lord Fairfax. St Mary's church and churchyard were used for 115 extant memorials and burials from 1836 to 1987. In 2001 the Piercebridge area suffered in the foot and mouth epidemic. By 1887, the village had grown to cover of which 17 were water. It had a population of 206, a railway station and a post office. Since then it has lost the railway station, gained few residents, and retained its post office. A clock in the George Hotel inspired Henry Clay Work's 1876 song "

My Grandfather's Clock "My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music. The ''Oxford English Dictionary' ...

". The clock was said to have been owned by two brothers named Jenkins. When one brother died, the clock began losing time, and it stopped forever upon the death of the other.

Preservation

Within the village there are numerous

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

and

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

cottages: some painted white or cream; some of one storey only. There are several Grade II listed buildings in the village and its environs, including White Cross Farmhouse, White Cross Cottage, Carlbury Bridge, Piercebridge Grange Farmhouse, the Church of St Mary and its wall and gate, and numbers 2, 28, 29 and 30 on The Green. The Grange farm buildings, however, were developed into residential properties in 2008.

and the medieval chapel ruins on Roman foundations behind Bath House in Tees View are listed Grade II*. The bridge carrying the main B6275 road was originally built in the early 16th century and was widened in 1781; it is Grade II* listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The village green contains some very old trees, and in the river are trout and greyling. At the north end of the village, near the A67 is the Carlbury Arms pub. There is also a Farmway Country Store and Piercebridge Feed Company, retailing rural supplies. The dismantled

Tees Valley Railway The Tees Valley Railway was an branch railway line that ran between Barnard Castle on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway line between Bishop Auckland and Kirkby Stephen East, and Middleton-in-Teesdale via three intermediate station ...

has become the Tees Valley Railway Path. Church services are held at St Mary's every other week, and there is also a Wesleyan Methodist chapel.

Transport

Originally Dere Street crossed the Tees further upstream, but in 1771 a flood washed away the remains of the old Roman bridge, and in 1789 a new bridge replaced the ferry. The 1806 map shows Dere Street as the main route via Piercebridge between

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

and

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

, although the Ripon- Durham route went via

. The 1904 map shows the route diverted via Staindrop, and that part of Dere Street between Piercebridge and Bishop Auckland had become a minor road. This was possibly due to the advent of the

NER NER may refer to: * New European Recordings, a record label * ISO 3166-1 three letter code for Niger * Named entity recognition, a text processing task that identifies certain words as belonging to one class or another * Northeast Regional, an Amtr ...

Darlington and Barnard Castle railway (1856) whose station closed to passengers in 1964. According to the land-usage map of 1942, this was an area of arable land and pasture, and the urbanisation around

had not yet begun to encroach.

References

External links

OS map of Piercebridge, 1859

Piercebridge conservation area character appraisal 2005
{{authority control Villages in County Durham Places in the Borough of Darlington Places in the Tees Valley