The D&S of 100 years ago was concerned with the condition of the Cauldron Snout Bridge, “that slender suspended arrangement which carries folk over the Tees from Durham into Westmorland and is the delight of tourists in this extreme west corner of Teesdale”.

Cauldron Snout is now immediately below Cow Green Reservoir. Some people say it is a cascade; others that it is a staircase of falls while others claim it is the longest waterfall in the country – whichever, it is very impressive.

“The bridge serves a district windswept during the greater part of the year, the wind sometimes being sufficiently strong to blow the bridge ‘sideways on’ so that anyone crossing it would be in the position of a sailor on a ship in a tempest,” said the D&S.

The D&S was hopeful that the authorities on either side of the Tees – Barnard Castle to the east and Westmorland to the west – would soon repair the bridge.

Darlington and Stockton Times: Cauldron Snout in the 1880s when it still had a slender plank bridge across it

This snippet of news gave the D&S the opportunity to tell the story of the Red Cloak Ghost, “the wraith of Phillis Bell” which haunted the cascade.

The unfortunate Phillis was murdered in her house by a robber, or robbers, who buried her body beneath the floorboards and made off with her possessions.

“It used to be said that this ghost, although it haunted both sides of the Tees, was not seen on one side within 24 hours of its appearance on the other, and thus it upheld the ghostly tradition that ‘a running stream they dare not cross’,” said the D&S. “Thus, when one side saw the apparition, the other side was immune from its visitation for at least a day.”

When Phillis’s house was rebuilt some years ago, said the D&S, “her bones were found and thrown into the Tees, and from the day, says the story, her ‘bogle’ has never been seen or heard.”

Have you ever seen the Red Cloak Ghost of Cauldron Snout?