The Raines of Crossthwaite

James Raine, Elizabeth's great great grandfather ,who lived from 1842 to 1926, was the Raine who emigrated to Australia. He descends both from the Raines of Thringarth (from Lawrence Raine, b.1716) and from the Raines of Crossthwaite (from Dinah Raine, b.1712, who married Lawrence in 1740). While we were in County Durham, we visited the Crossthwaite area.

Baptismal entries identify the father of Dinah Raine, the great grandmother of emigrant James, as William Raine of Crosthwaite (born in 1688) and the parents of her brother, William, as William and Ann Raine of Crosthwaite (married in 1712).

Above: a view of the Crossthwaite area.

An interesting note about this William Raine is that his first wife, whom he married in 1703, was Ann Tinckler of Holwick Head (which was the neigbouring farm). She died in 1705.

Above: Holwick Head farm in 2007.

It appears that William Raine subsequently remarried—strangely, to a woman with the same name (spelled Ann Tincklar), although she came from a different place in the Romaldkirk parish--Baldersdale, which was the name of the neighbouring valley across the fells. Pictured below is the modern-day Selset Reservoir in Baldersdale.

Crossthwaite (the home of William and both his wives, Ann) was a farmhouse located on the eastern edge of the village of Holwick, about three miles upstream from Mickleton. Dinah and all her siblings were born in the farmhouse at Crossthwaite during the years 1708 to 1718. It was a tiny place. We know that a century later, in 1822, the village of Holwick had a total population of just 301 people.

Above: Crossthwaite farm in 2007.

It appears that the Crossthwaite farm stayed in the Raine family for at least another 150 years. Dinah’s brother William (b.1715) married Ann Airey and had eleven children (born from 1746 to 1767) at their farmhouse, Step Ends (opposite Middleton-in Teesdale, on the south of the River Tees). Presumably the eldest surviving son continued to work the Crossthwaite farm.

Above: the view of the area near Step Ends,

opposite Middleton, in 2007.

Their youngest son, Thomas (b.1767), farmed at first at Lonton, a farm between Step Ends and Mickleton, and then from about 1800 at Park End (near the Crossthwaite Scars). While we we driving in this area, we did snap Lonton as we passed by:

The line returns to Crossthwaite with the second son of Thomas, also named Thomas (b.1799), who married Ann Foster and had ten children, all of whom were born at the Crossthwaite farm (in the years 1822–1843).

On the southern side of the Crossthwaite and Holwick area are the Crossthwaite Scars, some striking outcrops of whinstone which have been mined in past centuries and which remain today as noteworthy features of the environment--as our pictures, hopefully, will convey.

Above and below: Crossthwaite Scars

Today, between the Crossthwaite farm and the River Tees, runs a section of the Pennine Way. This is a walking track which runs the length of the Pennine mountains, from the Peak District in Derbyshire up into the southern regions of Scotland. For quite a while, the Pennine Way runs right next to the river--in fact, between Low Force and High Force you can see the river with unimpeded views. Here is Elizabeth walking along it:

The Wynch Bridge (above) allows pedestrian traffic across the river Tees. This was the border between North Yorkshire and Durham until 1974. The original version of the bridge was built in 1741; it was rebuilt in the 1840s and has been kept in good condition from the 1980s.

Now, to conclude our tour of Raine Country in the high Pennines, we will post some more pictures of the river and its rapids and waterfalls. (Force comes from a Norse word for fall.)

The farm at Holwick (pictured at the start of this post) is less than a mile from Low Force. It was easy for us to imagine the children of these Raine families in the past, running alongside the river, fishing in it, and scrambling across the rocks (if they were brave enough!).