Greta Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greta Bridge is a village on the River Greta in County Durham, England. It lies in the Pennine hills near to Barnard Castle.
Contents |
[edit] Geography and administration
[edit] Civic history
Greta Bridge lies within the historic county boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire, but along with the rest of the former Startforth Rural District, Greta Bridge was transferred to County Durham for administrative and ceremonial purposes on 1 April 1974 pursuant to the Local Government Act 1972.
[edit] History
The Roman name for Greta Bridge was Concangium. Greta Bridge is mentioned in Charles Dickens' novel The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as the site of Dotheboys School. Dickens mentions the "George and New Inn, Greta Bridge". This is thought to be a conflation of two coaching inns in or near Greta Bridge.
The link here is the publican "George Martin" who first of all ran the inn called the "George and Dragon" to the West of the River Greta, he then moved to the original "Morritt's Arms" built on the East bank of the River Greta as a coaching inn by the Morritt family of Rokeby,in approx 1756, and he renamed it "The George" as recorded by Dickens (maybe having left his "dragon" behind at the present Morritt Arms!) Later, Martin moved to be landlord of The New Inn a mile to the east of Greta Bridge and re named that "The George and New Inn". Source; Peter Gilbertson of The Coach House, Greta Bridge.
The famous painting The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez was originally housed at Rokeby Hall, near Greta Bridge.
