Nature Features

The Tees starts to get into the hill country during this section of the journey.

It’s stunning and beautiful countryside but can be very wild at times as well.

Middleton in Teesdale is a town which grew in part because of the London Lead Company who chose the town as their northern head quarters in 1815.

The Tees snakes around the southern tip of the town and also passes the auction mart which sits on the banks of the river before meandering onwards and upwards towards, what I think, is a hidden gem of the Tees.

Near the village of Newbiggin there is a small lay by at the side of the road with a phone box next to it. Park up here and follow the small footpath sign through two fields before dropping down through some trees and just take in an incredible view.

I’m talking about Low Force – this is a picture postcard shot of beauty which will take your breath away. Just below Low Force is the Wynch Bridge – it’s a blue suspension bridge which was erected around 1820 to allow lead miners who lived at Holwick to reach the mines at Middleton.

I think that the scenery at Low Force is breath taking but for the documentary I took Teesside folk legend Vin Garbutt up to Teesdale and if you listen to the piece of audio you can hear what he made of this fantastic place.

Next stop is the famous High force and then near the village of Forest in Teesdale the river takes a left turn and up to the third waterfall of the area, Cauldron Snout which is England’s highest waterfall.

All three waterfalls are magnificent but for me I have to single out Low Force as my personal favourite. JMW Turner journeyed to Low Force and Cauldron Snout during his sketching tours and Michael Rudd told me about how he discovered that Turner “moved” the Wynch bridge from Low Force and placed it at Cauldron Snout.