Low Coniscliffe - Geographical and Political

Geographical and Political

The local geology of Permian rocks includes limestone, chalk, gypsum and salt: all liable to be soluble or karstic, and these can cause subsidence and caves in some places, although not necessarily in Low Coniscliffe. The village is situated along the north bank of the River Tees, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of its parish church at High Coniscliffe and 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Darlington. Apart from the Baydale Beck pub on the A67, Low Coniscliffe is now mostly a fairly new estate within a small triangle formed by the River Tees to the south and east, the A1 road to the west and the A67 road to the north. Beyond these boundaries to the east is Broken Scar waterworks and Darlington, and fields and small villages in other directions.

Possible earlier boundaries could have been the Tees to the south, Ulnaby Beck to the west, Baydale Beck to the east and Cocker Beck to the north. Cocker Beck encloses Thornton Hall in the parish. The inhabitants of the hall, the Tailbois, Thorntons, Bowes and Honeywoods, have been associated with Low Coniscliffe in the past. The nearest village is Merrybent to the north−west, and the highest point is Coniscliffe Grange at the north end of the parish.

In 1762 the village had a turnpike gate. In the 1891 census Low Coniscliffe included Coniscliffe Grange, Dublar Castle and East Farm, and there was a Badle Beck Inn which is probably the current Baydale Beck Inn. The village was not affected by the flooding of 2007, but lost power for one morning. Chenopodium glaucum, or oak−leaved goosefoot, was found here in 1930, and Yellow Star of Bethlehem was found in 1942. The rare fungus Rhodotus palmatus was found in the area in 1993.