Cotherstone Castle

Cotherstone is a village and civil parish in the district and county of Durham, England, historically in Yorkshire. Cotherstone cheese is a celebrated delicacy of the village, famed since at least 1858. Cotherstone railway station was between Barnard Castle and Middleton on the now-closed Middleton-in-Teesdale Branch Line. The railway line crossed the River Balder at the Balder Viaduct just north of Cotherstone.

Cotherstone railway station was situated on the Tees Valley Railway between Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale. It served the village of Cotherstone. The station opened to passenger traffic on 13 May 1868, and closed on 30 November 1964. The station buildings remain intact as a private dwelling.

The Balder is an English river that rises on the eastern slope of Stainmore Common in the Pennine Chain and flows eastwards for about 23.4 kilometres (14.5 mi), before joining the River Tees at Cotherstone. The River Balder is in County Durham, but until 1974, it was in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The head of the valley is a bleak moorland, with hills around it exceeding 500 feet (150 m). the name is first recorded in the 13th century, and is thought to derive from an Old English personal name (B(e)aldhere), with possibly the river valley being named Baldersdale first, and the river being named later. For the first 4 kilometres (2.5 mi), the watercourse runs as Balder Beck, before meeting Black Beck and forming the River Balder proper at NY886173. The River Balder enters Balderhead Reservoir about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the source, at 336 metres (1,102 ft) above sea level. It spills into two more reservoirs further down Baldersdale: Blackton Reservoir and Hury Reservoir. The scenery becomes gentler as it descends past Baldersdale Youth Hostel. The distinctive flat peak of Goldsborough to the south is passed before the valley begins to open out as the river enters Blackton Reservoir at 285 metres (935 ft). The course of the valley carries on at a virtually exactly east direction as the River Balder enters Hury Reservoir at about 260 m (850 ft), passing the village of Hury which lies to the north. The river now begins to twist and turn and is crossed by the grade II listed, nine-arched Balder Railway Viaduct, which was used by the Barnard Castle to Middleton-in-Teesdale railway line before it was closed. It finally joins the River Tees at Cotherstone, at a height of about 162 metres (531 ft).

Shipley and Great Woods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Teesdale district of south-west County Durham, England. It occupies a steep ravine in the valley of the River Tees, just north of the village of Cotherstone. The woodland growing on the valley slopes, cliffs and screes is one of the most important woodland sites in North-east England, being home to several local plant species and the richest assemblage of woodland lichens in the region.

Lartington railway station was situated on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway between Barnard Castle and Kirkby Stephen East. It served the village of Lartington. The station opened to passenger traffic on 26 March 1861, and closed on 22 January 1962. The station and related buildings remain intact as a private dwelling. In 1910, Lartington station was the site of an accident in which 7 people were injured.

Lartington is a village and civil parish about 2 miles (3 km) west of the town of Barnard Castle, in Teesdale, in the Pennines of England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 135. Lartington is historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire but along with the rest of the former Startforth Rural District it was transferred to County Durham for administrative and ceremonial purposes on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The parish is notable for Lartington Hall, the seat of the Roman Catholic Maire family. Lartington railway station was on the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway, which is now abandoned. It opened in 1861 and closed in 1962.

Lartington Hall is a 17th-century country house, at Lartington, Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Startforth Rural District was a rural district in the North Riding of the historic county of Yorkshire in the Pennines of northern England. It was formed in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894. It constituted the part of the Teesdale Rural Sanitary District that was in the North Riding (the rest being in County Durham). In 1974, the district was abolished and became, for administrative purposes, part of the Teesdale district of the non-metropolitan county of County Durham. It comprised the area south of the River Tees between Cow Green Reservoir and Gainford, and north of the modern administrative border between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The area is hilly and fairly sparsely populated. Places within it included; Villages Barningham Boldron Bowbank Bowes Brignall Cotherstone Gilmonby Grassholme Greta Bridge Hutton Magna Holwick Hunderthwaite Hury Lartington Mickleton Ovington Romaldkirk Scargill Startforth Thringarth Wycliffe Dales Baldersdale Deep Dale Lunedale Teesdale (south side only) Reservoirs and lakes Balderhead Blackton Fish Lake Grassholme Hury Selset Fells and moors Barningham Moor Bowes Moor Cotherstone Moor Cronkley Fell Holwick Fell Hope Moor Hunderthwaite Moor Lune Moor Mickle Fell Scargill High Moor Sleightholme Moor Forests Lune Stainmore Rivers and becks River Balder Deepdale Beck River Greta Roads A66 A67 B6276 B6277 The Pennine Way also passes through the area.

Balder Viaduct is a former railway bridge near to the village of Cotherstone, in County Durham, England. The viaduct was part of the Tees Valley Railway between Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale. It was opened in 1868 and closed in 1965. When it was open as a railway, the viaduct was in the old North Riding of Yorkshire. The viaduct is now open to walkers as part of the Tees Valley Railway Walk.

Baldersdale Woodlands is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. It consists primarily of ancient, semi-natural woodland growing on steep valley slopes, including scree, on both banks of the River Balder over a stretch of some 3 km, upstream (i.e. west) of the village of Cotherstone. The site has a rich faunal assemblage and the woodland and associated stretch of the river is home to a variety of birds, including dipper and goosander. In part, the site derives its importance from the proximity of similarly protected sites in other valleys in the River Tees catchment area; the Shipley and Great Woods SSSI occupies a similar position in the valley of the Tees immediately north of Cotherstone. The condition of the site was last assessed by Natural England in September 2009, when it was mostly rated as "favourable"; a small area, just over 10 percent of the total area, is suffering from cattle grazing but was rated as "recovering".

Crag Gill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Teesdale district in south-west County Durham, England. It lies about 3 km east of the village of Eggleston, just off the B6282 road, which separates it from the Bollihope, Pikestone, Eggleston and Woodland Fells SSSI to the north. Crag Gill consists of an exposure of late Namurian limestones, sandstones and shales that form a Yoredale-type sequence. The exposure is the type locality of the Whitestone limestone, a marker horizon for Namurian stratigraphy.

Deepdale, sometimes spelt Deep Dale, is a side valley of Teesdale in County Durham, England. In its lower reaches, just west of the town of Barnard Castle, the valley is well wooded, and is a nature reserve, known for its bird life and a population of otters. Deepdale Beck, a tributary of the River Tees, runs through the valley. By the beck is the Great Stone, a glacial erratic from Shap in Cumbria, one of the largest erratics in Teesdale. The valley was once crossed by the Deepdale Viaduct, 2 miles (3 km) west of Barnard Castle. The viaduct was designed by Thomas Bouch (of the Tay Bridge disaster fame) and built in 1861 to carry the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway. It closed in 1962 and was dismantled in 1963. At the foot of the dale the Deepdale Aqueduct, which is also a footbridge, crosses the River Tees. It was built in 1898, and is a Grade II listed building. Deerbolt army camp Startforth used Deepdale as a training ground until the early 1960s. The road at the bottom of the dale was tarmac with concrete bollards on each side, as you went up the road there was 2 Nissan army huts on the left side of the river a little further up on the right hand side of the road was ditches which are still there but filled with bog plants, these used to have barbed wire over them so the soldiers had to crawl under the wire through the ditches. I think there was 4 in the open area on the right of the road. The road then dips down to a concrete ford and onto the rifle ranges. The open land was used for parking and there was rifle shooting ranges aiming towards the bank next to the back of a concrete roofed building. This was used as a store, the targets were pulled up on top of the bank next to the building.