12 pictures of Teesdale as it once was, and the gory story of the Hand of Glory

Little did we know it would lead to a modern murder story and an older, gory story of a Hand of Glory. If you can add to our knowledge about any of these pictures, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

The Stainmore cafe on the A66 on the west side of the Durham border. When this picture was taken in July 1969, Westmoreland County Council was widening the road

Alec Jackson, 70, with his great-grandson John Lancaster, two-and-a-half, in July 1969, at Old Spital Farm, Bowes Moor, which Mr Jackson had farmed for 60 years. 

Alec's flock of Swaledale sheep beside the A66 near the Stainmore summit in 1969 in the days when it didn't matter if they strayed through the wooden fence onto the road

Old Spital Farm at Stainmore on the A66 was initially a 12th Century hospital set up by the abbot of Marrick Priory in Swaledale, but beside the main trans-Pennine road, it was later converted into an inn: the Spittle Inn. As it is just about at the summit, it was a popular place in coaching days for a change of horses. It also has a macabre story attached to it.

One wild evening in 1797, an old hag appeared at the inn door and requested shelter. Landlord George Alderson being a hospitable fellow, let her in to warm by the fire. However, he was suspicious of her appearance - he had been to Brough Hill Fair that day and had won a large amount of money - and so asked his maid, Bella, to stay in the bar with her.

Bella wrapped herself in a blanket and feigned to fall asleep. To her shock, the hag then threw off her clothes and revealed herself as a man, who delved into a bag and - to Bella's horror - pulled out a "hand of glory".

A Hand of Glory is the shrivelled but preserved hand of a man who has been hanged - it is either his sinister left hand or the right if it was the one which committed the terrible crime - with, between its fingers, candles made from the fat of the criminal with his hair as the wick.

The intruder lit the candles and said the requisite two rhymes.
The first: "Let all who sleep, sleep on; let those who are awake, be awake."

It meant that those who were asleep could never be woken while the candles were alight but those who were awake would remain awake to carry out their nefarious crimes.

The second: "Oh, Hand of Glory, shed thy light, Direct us to our spoil tonight." It was a plea to the forces of darkness to reveal where George had stashed his winnings.
The intruder went to the door and summoned his companions to help in the lucrative search.

But Bella was awake. Literally. She shoved the man out of the door and locked it. She dashed upstairs and tried to rouse Mr Alderson and his family - but they were still bewitched by the Hand of Glory.

Then she remembered her folklore. If you douse the candles with milk, they will extinguish, and the sleepers will awake.

Bella did just that and George jumped out of bed and with his blunderbuss saw off the rogues. The Aldersons kept the Hand of Glory for many years until they buried it beneath a gibbet.

The Bowes Moor Hotel in July 1969 was on the A66 near the Durham and Cumbria border. The hotel, which claimed that it was the highest in England, closed in 2012, after battling against debts for many years.

Indeed, in 1983, the proprietor, Mark Johns, who had once been the world's first full time TV critic on the Daily Express, disappeared and when his car was found at Hull, it was assumed that he had fled the country and his creditors to whom he owed £50,000.

However, five months later, his estranged wife reported him missing, and suspicion fell on the trainee manager and chef who admitted shooting him with his own shotgun because he was a "hard taskmaster".

They'd kept his body in a fridge for a couple of days before burying it in a shallow grave on Cotherstone moor. They'd cancelled his milk and deliveries, and removed his clothes and toothbrush from the hotel to make it look as if he had gone away, and then parked his car near the docks at Hull.

This is not the only macabre incident in the building's 300-year history - it was originally a shooting lodge for the earls of Strathmore. In the distant past, a young girl was beheaded by her lover and thrown down a well in the cellar, which she still haunts - including with her blood which apparently appears on the cellar walls from time to time

An undated but classic view of the Butter Market and St Mary's Church in Barnard Castle

A great picture of a goods train going over the Tees Viaduct at Barnard Castle. It was 732ft (223 metres) long and 132ft (40 metres) high, and took the lines to Middleton-in-Teesdale and to Stainmore. It was built, by Thomas Bouch, in 1860 and it was demolished in 1971

Ending the railway era or a wanton act of destruction? Dismantling the 102-year-old Deepdale Viaduct in October 1963 following the closure of the line over Stainmore. The viaduct, over the steeply-sided Deepdale Beck, was 740 feet (256 metres) long and 161 feet (49 metres) high

We had assumed this was the pump at Romaldkirk but on investigation, it turns out not to be: the one at Romaldkirk is similar but very different. So where is/was this one?

A view of a village from a time gone by: Romaldkirk, with the Kirk Inn on the left and a couple of shops in the distance. This picture was taken in June 1962

The Middleton-in-Teesdale postman passing a shoe shop on his rounds in September 1961

A beautiful, if desolate, study of upper Teesdale taken in August 1967. A month later, this landscaped was flooded as construction of Cow Green reservoir began