Residents of picturesque village confused by 'at risk' register entry

A PICTURESQUE village has been listed as vulnerable and “deteriorating” by heritage experts.

Newsham was the region’s only new entry on Historic England’s 2017 “at risk” register with an assessment judging its conservation area as in a poor condition.

But some residents can’t understand the measure.

Willy Marwood has lived in Newsham for 30 years.

He said: “I don’t see there is any call for it. The only thing is the grass crating means you can park your cars on the side of the green.”

Jill James moved to the village in 1979 and lives within the Conservation Area.

She said: “I don’t see why we’d be at risk. In the years I’ve lived here it’s certainly not deteriorated or changed very much at all. There isn’t much you can change in the centre of the village anyway.”

The North Yorkshire village was designated a Conservation Area in 1982 for its village green, its character and its 18th century buildings.

Villager Brian Enticott didn’t think much had changed and saw problems elsewhere.

He said: “Flooding is the biggest bugbear for people here – it seems to be in a similar spot all the time.”

Richmondshire District Council planning office recommended the village be risk listed with Historic England.

But the council could not give reasons why before the Mercury went to print.

Among the other landmarks and sites at risk in Teesdale were the “declining” castle walls, in Barnard Castle, and concerns about the historic industrial workings on Cockfield Fell.

Rock carvings dating to prehistory on Barningham Moor were kept on the risk list alongside archaeology and carved bedrock near Lartington and West Loup’s on Cotherstone Moor.

Cockfield’s Conservation Area retains its place on the list as a site of “high vulnerability”.

Slow decay at Mortham Tower’s gateway, at Rokeby, saw it on the roster alongside 17th century Gainford Hall and its Dovecote.

Upper Teesdale didn’t escape the list either with Calf Holm’s Roman period settlement and Pike Law’s lead hushes and mines both exposed erosion and “significant animal burrowing” respectively.

Stretches of the former Stockton and Darlington Railway near Etherley and West Auckland were also labelled as having “extensive significant problems”.