A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



century it was a ridge two yards in height and eight yards broad, all paved 

 with stone. ^ At Lanchester another road called the Wrekendike ran to 

 Urfa," the Roman station at South Shields. From Startforth, near Barnard 

 Castle, the Roman Causey crossed Deor Street just south of Bishop Auckland 

 and ran towards Garmondsway. At the south end of the Roman bridge 

 across the Tyne, the modern Gateshead, a Roman road seems to have run 

 through Chester le Street towards Middleton One Row, being joined near 

 Chester, perhaps, by a road starting near Jarrow (? Rycknild Street) and south 

 of Durham city by another road from Urfa. 



Other Roman roads may be traced with a little less certainty, but it is 

 probable that the site of one is now covered by the sea between Seaton Carew 

 and Hartlepool. There were doubtless pre-Roman roads or tracks across the 

 county, some of which may have been re-made by the Romans, and our 

 modern highways are descendants in many cases of the old Salters' Tracks and 

 Coal Roads of Saxon and mediaeval times. The great Salters' Track ran 

 between Wearmouth and the salt-pans of Billinghamshire, with one branch 

 towards Hartlepool and another to the once famous mediaeval port of Yarm- 

 on-Tees, a few miles above Stockton. 



Closely allied to the roads as means of communication are bridges and 

 ferries or fords. The swing-bridge between Gateshead and Newcastle 

 occupies the site of the only known Roman bridge in the county. The history 

 of the fords and ferries is less certain, and the former would be at the disposal 

 of both Celt and Roman. Sunderland ford on the Wear perished in 1400* 

 by one of those inundations of the sea which have not only destroyed the once 

 fine harbour of Wearmouth, but have also affected so materially the contours 

 of the Durham coast. The Tees was apparently never bridged by the 

 Romans, but there were many fords over it, and in historic times there were 

 or are ferries at Croft Spa, Stockton, and Middlesbrough. The history of 

 the last of these is curious. In the neighbourhood of Middlesbrough a 

 Roman trajectus helped men to pass between North Yorkshire and the salt-pans 

 of South-east Durham. In Saxon times a ferry still existed and the tolls 

 of ' Billingham Ferry ' were farmed out by the prior of Durham generally at 

 ^2 annually. However, the prior had the right to purchase at the rate of 

 4^. a hundred all the fish called ' sparlings ' which the ferryman or his 

 servants might catch, and the prior and his chief officials together with 

 their luggage had the right of free passage.* Besides the ferry there was a 

 ford across the Tees at Newport, on the right bank of the river. Both, 

 however, were practically superseded in 1862 by a steam ferry between 

 Middlesbrough and Port Clarence, which in turn is shortly to give place to a 

 transporter bridge. The oldest existing bridge over the Tees is the famous 

 Yarm bridge built by the bishop in 1400 and strengthened in 1807. The 

 original Croft bridge was probably built at an even earlier date, while Stock- 

 ton bridge dates only from 1771 when it superseded the bishop's ferry. The 

 first bridge over the Wear was Ranulf Flambard's bridge at Durham, built 

 about 1 1 20. The Sunderland bridge was not opened till 1796. 



' Hutchinson, Hist, of Durham, ii, 432 n. {sub Ebchester). ' The Roman name is lost. 



' Wearmouth R. (Surtees Society, xxix), 24.8. 



* MS. Prior's Halmote Book, i, fol. 136, and ii, fols. 122 and 195. Billingham ferry was the only 

 ferrj- which did not belong to the bishop. Strictly speaking, the prior only farmed on", half of the tolls, as 

 the other half belonged to the lord of the manor on the other side of the Tees. 



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