Hurworth-on-Tees and Croft-on-Tees

William Emerson was the son of a local schoolmaster, beginning his working life as a mason and thatcher while teaching himself mathematics and mechanics. Later living in semi-retirement and writing influential books on maths, geometry, navigation, and optics, his bedraggled appearance, prodigious knowledge, and peculiar habits led locals to regard him with a mixture of fear and awe. As a lover of ale, it is fitting that his birthplace is now the Emerson Arms, while above the Bay Horse Inn is a complex sundial he devised. Emerson's altar tomb and the grave of his friend John Hunter stand in All Saints churchyard (founded in the 12th century with a fine 15th-century tower).

The route leads over fertile farmland and crosses the River Tees into North Yorkshire at the 15th-century red-brick and sandstone Croft Bridge (restored after the 1753 flood), beneath whose arches lives a colony of Daubenton's bats. Nearby stands the Croft Spa Hotel (built in 1835 for visitors taking local sulphur, magnesia, and iron springs discovered in 1714 when horses with swollen legs were miraculously cured).

Passing Croft Hall (former home of debtor Sir William Chaytor) and flax fields of dazzling sapphire blue, the path leads through woodland to Monkend and Croft-on-Tees. In 1843 the old rectory became home to the Reverend Charles Dodgson and his family, whose eldest son Charles later found fame as the author Lewis Carroll.

Close by is early-12th-century St Peter's Church, featuring an 18th-century two-storey Milbanke family pew (where Lord Byron and his bride sat during their 1815 honeymoon at Halnaby Hall), a 1490 monument, a Lewis Carroll memorial plaque, and a 14th-century triple sedilia whose carved animal head on the far right inspired the grin of the Cheshire Cat.

The return route to Hurworth follows a track passing the grounds of Hurworth Grange.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.