Barnard Castle & Merrington Visit

The Castle at Barnard Castle

It was early morning on Sunday and my alarm was going off. My wife and I had planned a little trip out to see some of the places I cover in my book (A King's Gamble: The Neville's Cross Campaign 1346). Places we'd not visited before. First up was Barnard Castle. It was around an hour away from home and definitely worth the trip. We parked near to St Mary's Church, which was built in the 12th Century if memory serves - a wonderful building, which we looked around.

St Mary's Church, Barnard Castle

The town itself is quite small and has a nice feel. Kind of like Durham, crossed with York but the size of Chester Le Street.

In terms of the book, Barnard Castle doesn't play a huge role, it's simply a point on the map for the English army to march past on their way to Auckland (Bishop Auckland) and then on to Durham.

After an hour or so pottering around Barnard Castle we headed to Merrington (Kirk Merrington, as it's known today). There's nothing there at all.

Kirk Merrington, near Spennymoor

The place consists of a few sleepy streets and you'd never assume that around dawn on 17 October 1346, hundreds of Scots were slaughtered there.

Sir Robert Ogle, lead the advance units of the English march and surprised Sir William Douglas, who along with around 500 raiders was busy ransacking the farmland around Merrington. There was a heavy fog that morning and Ogle's men appeared from nowhere - the Scots were not expecting any English troops in the area at all. The English men-at-arms and archers tore the Scottish raiders to shreds, sending them reeling away from Merrington in panic towards Ferryhill and eventually Durham, with Ogle and his men hot on their heels. 300 Scots were killed or captured (and then killed) in the clash.

Ferryhill is off to the west (this is the centre of Kirk Merrington)

My book, A King's Gamble: The Neville Cross Campaign 1346 will be out soon and features an in-depth, thoroughly researched narrative driven account of the entire Neville's Cross campaign. A campaign that has been largely forgotten by history and is glossed over in a sentence or two in most Hundred Years' War narratives.

The Barnard Castle & Merrington visit was great to put these places into context. Look out for Bishop Auckland next!