Castles Farm Bridge to the Water Wheel
The suggested starting point for this historical walk is at Castles Farm Bridge at the north end of the Dene. Standing on the bridge looking upstream, there stretches before us the extension of the Dene purchased by the City from Lord Armstrong. On the left, note the magnificent house known as Craghall. Standing in extensive grounds it was built about 1820 and is at present a home for retired people. In 1844 a gardener working in the grounds discovered two stone Cists (kists) or containers. In one was a decorated food vessel, in the other a funerary urn of a later period. Both vessels were in good condition. The discovery of the Cists is a reminder that even early man found Jesmond Dene a desirable place to live.
Turning to look downstream, on the right can be seen as glimpse of the Racquet Court; built by the Noble family for their private use as a Real Tennis court, it incorporated a 2-storey house at the western end for a tennis professional named Lambert. The building is now used mainly for badminton. Leaving the bridge, we walkup the short but steep hill and on the right, find Castles Farm. The farmhouse, a listed building, has very thick castellated walls and dates back some 250 years. There are two follies in the garden but very little is known of their history. Retracing our steps to the bridge, we enter the Dene by the East Gate and take the upper path, noting the typical English woodland as we pass through. After a short while we reach Blackberry Crags – massive sandstone cliffs festooned with ivy.
High on the far side of the valley stands Jesmond Dene House, originally built in 1822 from neo-Tudor designs by John Dobson; it was then known as Black Dene House and later renamed Jesmond Dene House. In 1871 it was taken over by Sir Andrew Noble and considerably enlarged by Norman Shaw and F W Rich. Many important guests have been entertained at the house, including Princes from Egypt and Japan, Rudyard Kipling and Admiral Lord Beatty. The house is now a luxury hotel: Jesmond Dene House hotel.
Beyond Jesmond Dene House lies another Dobson-designed building which has associations with the Dene – Jesmond Towers. Once a girls’ convent school and now a private residence, this ornately gothic style building incorporates work from about 1817 to 1833 and was bought and occupied by Lord Armstrong’s partner, Charles Mitchell, around 1870.
Turning left, we descend into a quarry which on a fine summer’s day is a veritable suntrap. The quarry, shown as Blaeberry Crags on earlier maps, was worked for sandstone which is of a very high quality and is said to have made grindstones which were shipped all over the world. Leaving the quarry by the lower path we can see on our left, high in the bankside a seam of coal – not of very high quality, but a reminder of the number of small drift mines once along the bank of the Ouseburn.
From here we rejoin the Ouseburn and keeping to the left bank, pass North Lodge, with stepping stones directly in front, and continue to Jesmond Dene Waterfall with its bridge and ruined mill. The Waterfall, an awe-inspiring sight when in full spate, was constructed in the late 1800s by the then Lord Armstrong to provide a more picturesque view. Below it stands the old Water Mill, one of many mills which bordered the Ouseburn in years past. Dating back to the 13th Century, the mill was occupied for three or four generations by the Freeman family who used it as a flour mill. Ownership then passed to a man called Pigg who ground spoiled grain into pollards, a kind of feed for pigs. The lease next transferred to a Mr Charlton who used the mill for grinding flint which was barrelled and carted to a pottery near the mouth of the Ouseburn, and the remains can still be seen of the cobbled path along which the flint was hauled; the ground flint was used in a process of putting a glaze on the finished pottery.
The watermill was an overshot mill late in its life span and the last waterwheel was removed in 1978 for rebuilding and eventual replacement. The mill was bought around 1860 by Lord Armstrong from a Dr Headlam and, although it was never used as a mill from the time of its purchase, it was still in use as a dwelling house until the 1920s. Unfortunately it was badly damaged by the Home Guard, when they were practising using explosives in the Second World War.
