Parish aims to solve Ferryman’s Cottage mystery

A PARISH council wants to turn a ruin into an attraction but is being hampered by a lack of information about it.
Mystery surrounds the remains of the Ferryman’s Cottage along the Teesdale Way footpath, near Whorlton, preventing the village’s parish council from putting up a plaque in tribute to the ferryman and his family who once lived there.
It is believed the family was wiped out in the early 1900s while trying to cross the River Tees, but no one has yet found a record of the tragedy.
The immediate vicinity of the derelict building is full of interesting features which Whorlton Parish Council wants to promote to make that stretch of the Teesdale Way more interesting.
Parish chairman George Stastny says the cottage is hugely important to the village. He said: “On the Whorlton Village Plan it is listed as a heritage asset and the county council was quite keen that we do that.”
The trouble is there are very few records about it.
Mr Stastny added: “With the oral tradition, unless it is picked up somehow, it is forgotten.”
The cottage is along the banks of the river surrounded by a number of terraces. A little further upstream there are two metal stakes, which Mr Stastny believes were used to secure the ferry.
Teesdale Mercury Remember When columnist Jinny Howlett confirms there was a ferry at nearby Wycliffe but has no knowledge of one near Whorlton.
She said: “Before Whorlton Bridge was built there was a ferry in the vicinity but it was at a place called Wycliffe Sills. It doesn’t seem very likely that there would be two ferries so close together. However, you never know.”
The Ferryman’s Cottage is located near to a ford across the Tees which Mr Stastny indicated had been blown up with dynamite preventing people from crossing there and thus forcing them to use the bridge.
Despite the existence of the bridge, people are believed to have continued to use the ferry.
Ann Woodward, who was born in the village and collected information about it for the Women’s Institute, says the Ferryman’s Cottage was known as The Boat House.
She said: “The ferry went across to the cottages at Wycliffe, including The Boot and Shoe Inn.
“The ferry worked until the 1850s, approximately 20 years after the bridge was built. It was cheaper to use than the ferry.”
She has been unable to find information about what happened to the ferryman and his family, but she is aware of other accidents where lives have been lost.
She said: “One involved six children being orphaned in 1896, when their parents perished in an overturned private rowing boat used to return from a celebration south of the river.
“Ironically, they lived at Grafts Farm, Whorlton, one of two farms exempted from paying tolls to cross the bridge.”
The beauty of the area has attracted attention from some notable people, including polar explorer Robert Swann. Mr Swann, who was the first person to walk to both poles, had hoped to restore the cottage.
Mr Stastny said: “He couldn’t get permission. Teesdale District Council, as it were, felt it was too far gone and the access was too poor. There was a general presumption against conversion to dwellings in rural locations.”
Since then nothing much has been done to save the cottage from further decline.
Anyone who has additional information that can help the Whorlton Parish Council can email Mr Stastny at george stastny@gmail.com.