Darlington; Monday, 31 May, 2021

I caught a taxi down from Darlington station to the hotel to check in and drop off my bags before heading back out. Thankfully the timing was good, and it meant that I was able to make the bus that only ran every other hour on a Bank Holiday Monday, which I caught to the edge of the town limits in the suburb of Piercebridge.

Piercebridge sits on the River Tees and today is a small quiet village. However, underneath the village lies the remains of a large Roman fort that once guarded the key Roman road that ran from York to the Firth of Forth and was the main supply line for the soldiers defending Hadrian’s Wall.

Most of the fort remains under the houses of the village, but the very eastern end, along with some of the original fortifications and ditches, are visible in a field to the edge of the village and are open to look around. The defensive ditches and footings of the gate house show how well defended this fort would have been.

I had a wander round the ruins of the fort before walking the short distance to the modern bridge across the River Tees and over to a field behind the coaching Inn at the end of the bridge which houses parts of the ruins on the original Roman bridge that crossed the Tees here.

Due to the frequency of the buses I only had a few minutes to look round the site, but it was enough to take in the small site, before heading back to the bus stop to catch the bus back into Darlington.

From the bus stop I had a bit of a wander through the centre of town – but, with the exception of the covered market and St Cuthbert’s church there isn’t very much historic in the very centre of Darlington.

I headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then popped out to grab some dinner.