Greta Bridge

Greta Bridge
Greta Bridge, John Sell Cotman, c. 1806
Greta Bridge Location within County Durham
OS grid reference	NZ086131
Unitary authority	County Durham
Ceremonial county	Durham
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Durham
Fire	County Durham and Darlington
Ambulance	North East
UK Parliament	Bishop Auckland

Greta Bridge is a hamlet on the River Greta in the parishes of Rokeby and Brignall in County Durham, England. The bridge (now bypassed by the A66 trunk road) is over the River Greta, just south of its confluence with the River Tees. The North Pennines, Teesdale and the Greta Bridge area – including the Meeting of the Waters – became a source of inspiration for romantic artists, poets and writers during the eighteenth century.

Name

The name derives from the River Greta, recorded earlier as Gretha (1279) and Gretay (1341).

The etymology is a hybrid of Old Norse and Old English. The Old Norse grjót means "coarse stones" or "rubble". The Old English ēa means "river", "running water" or "stream".

Governance

Greta Bridge is part of County Durham district and is governed by Durham County Council. The neighbouring village of Newsham – to the south-east – is part of North Yorkshire district.

Historically, Greta Bridge was in the North Riding of Yorkshire, but along with the rest of the former Startforth Rural District, Greta Bridge was transferred to County Durham for administrative and ceremonial purposes in 1974.

Geography

The village lies on the eastern flanks of the North Pennines – about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the North Pennines area of outstanding natural beauty. The nearest town – Barnard Castle – is the market town for Teesdale.

The village is divided between Rokeby parish and Brignall parish – by the river Greta.

History

Roman

Greta Bridge is on the route of the trans-Pennine (Stainmore) section of Watling Street (North) Roman road – now largely followed by the A66 trunk road. Archaeological excavations during the 1970's found part of the original road.

Maglona ramparts.

Greta Bridge is the location of a roman fort, or castrum, Maglona. An inscription found near the north gate suggests that the fort was built during the early third century AD, although it is possible that a fort existed on the site as early as the first century AD. It was built to protect the Watling Street crossing of the River Greta – river crossings were particularly vulnerable to attack from the local Brigantes or from other local tribes.

The Tutta Beck–Greta confluence and the Greta–Tees confluences are both in close proximity to the fort. River confluences had a special significance for the Gaulish legions and auxiliaries who were stationed in North Britain during the Roman occupation. Roman altars with inscriptions to Mars Condatis have been found in the Tees and Wear valleys. Similar altars are normally found at the confluence of rivers – for example, the Cong Burn–Wear confluence near Chester-le-Street – however others may have been disturbed or removed, especially by antiquarians and collectors. The inscription Mars Condatis is a conflation (joining together) of deities Mars and Condatis. The name Tutta may derive from the Gaulish deity Toutatis (or Tūtatus) – god of the tribe.

The bridge

The current bridge was built in 1773 to replace the one destroyed by the great flood of 1771. It was designed by John Carr for John Sawry Morritt, father of John Bacon Sawrey Morritt. Morritt also paid for the Abbey Bridge to be built in the same year.

Mail coach

Before the arrival of the railways in the 1850s, Greta Bridge had been an important overnight stop for the London to Carlisle coach. Overnight passengers and visitors would stay at one of the three coaching inns in the village.

1. The Morritt Arms.
2. The George.
3. George and New Inn (now Thorpe Grange Farmhouse).

Wordsworth and his wife Mary were regular users of the mail coach in order to travel over from the Lakes to visit Mary's parents at Stockton-on-Tees.

Romantic arts and tourism

During the eighteenth century Teesdale became a popular destination for romantic artists, poets and writers, who inspired others to follow. In 1799 William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge explored the area around Greta Bridge, after visiting Mary Hutchinson at Sockburn. Mary lived on her parents farm on the Sockburn Peninsula – the peninsula created by a tight meander of the River Tees. Wordsworth married Mary in 1802, and the couple often travelled over from the Lakes to visit Mary's parents, using the mail coach to Greta Bridge, and stopping over at Rokeby.

Greta Bridge (1805), British Museum.

The romantic painter John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842) first explored the Greta Bridge area in 1805 when 23 years old. He had been invited by the Cholmeley family to stay with them at Rokeby Hall. Cotman's best known work from his early period is the watercolour Greta Bridge (1805), now in the British Museum, which he painted from sketches made during his visit to Rokeby Park. The view is from the south of the bridge looking north, the Morritt Arms is shown on the left side of the bridge. The profile shown at the top of the bridge is noticeably different from that of the actual bridge – it shows a higher more pronounced summit – whereas the actual bridge has a gentle curved profile. It has been suggested that this was influenced by the geometry of the earlier bridge that had been destroyed in the great flood of 1771. The foreground is dominated by huge boulders – possibly swept down during the great flood.

Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, published 1810, had been hugely successful and placed the Loch Katrine in the Trossachs area firmly on the tourist map, boosting the economy of local towns. When Scott announced to John Bacon Sawrey Morritt that he was planning to write a similar poem based around Teesdale, Morritt offered his services as a guide, possibly anticipating how it might spark a wealthy tourist trade, and boost the local economy. Scott's poem Rokeby, published 1813, was also hugely successful and did attract many new visitors to Teesdale.

See also

• Bowes Museum
• List of places in County Durham
• List of Roman place names in Britain
• Roman sites in Great Britain

Sources

• Higham, Nick (1986). The Northern Counties to AD 1000. Longman. ISBN 0-582-49276-9.
• MacKillop, James (2004). Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860967-1.
• Oliver, Neil (2012). A History of Ancient Britain. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0753828861.
• Rabbitts, Paul; Rabbitts, David (2022). Cotherstone: A Village in Teesdale. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1398113831.
• Rudd, Michael D. C. (2007). The Discovery of Teesdale. Phillimore & Co Ltd. ISBN 978-1860774539.
• Warwick, Tosh; Parker, Jenny (2016). River Tees: From Source to Sea. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1445634876.
• Watts, Victor (2007). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-16855-7.

External links

• Tynedale Hadrian's Wall Group Greta Bridge Roman Fort Maglona.