IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Tees View, BARNARD CASTLE, DL12 9RN

Looking east.

Boldron's only pub, much used by the local and visiting quoits teams, on the corner site where West Lane (the main east-west in the village where most houses are situated) and Startforth Lane (off to the left) which heads down to Barnard Castle. The pub also used to house the tiny Post Office before the previous landlady retired and took that off to a house in the main part of the village. Even the relocated Post Office had gone by the time of this photo (it closed in 2009). The pub didn't last that much longer (it is now a private house) but quite a lot of the bar fittings and furniture were recycled into the Pinfold Club, which opened as a community-run village drinking hub in the old Primitive Methodist Chapel.

Looking from the eastern edge of the eastern of two fields behind Hill House Farm. Yet another sprinkling of overnight snow makes the muddy field look quite pleasant, but the sun will soon melt this again, as the ground is not remotely frozen. The trees in the distance on the right are in the garden of Hilltop Cottage.

Directly opposite Boldron parish church (whose path is in the foreground across the green), these two houses have been assembled "piecemeal" at different times, but maintaining a surprisingly level roofline compared with other houses further down the village.

It's not much of a hill, but Hilltop Cottage is at the highest point of the Boldron village green, which slopes down to the road (on which the photographer was standing) and down the length of the village to the left. This fall of snow is pretty soggy and rapidly disappearing, so the slalom poles have been taken away and the local children are not bothering to sledge on it - they've been spoilt throughout December and January !

There's surprisingly little change in the external appearance of what we always thought of as the Parish Church in Boldron since it was sold by the Church of England in 2012 and has subsequently been converted into a residence. I presume the internal changes are more significant - I certainly hope it has better heating ! Built in the 1880's on the site of a former house previously occupied by Jonathan Clarkson from 1841, with much of the building stone recycled from that house. It was an "outreach" from the mother church in Startforth (in the parish of Startforth and Rokeby with Brignall). The civil parish of Boldron, as shown on recent maps, is a small fraction of the area of that bigger entity, but does extend west from the village to take in the hamlet of Thornberry. This view is from the green at Boldron, which lies between the public road and the former chapel.

These two houses, on the south side of the road through Boldron, were clearly built as a pair. This is at the west end of the main built-up part of the village, and beyond the junction farm houses lie more scattered among the fields. The low light from the east indicates the start of a bright but cold winter morning, with icy roads - we are right at the end of the list for the gritters here, and they rarely visit the dead-end road behind the photographer at all.

For further info about the history of the village see https://boldron-history.co.uk/