The road now ascends to the photographer's location via a hairpin bend
NY8045 : Hairpin bend near Bridge Cleugh but its earlier routes can be seen in the hollow-ways on the slope below. Bridge Cleugh passes under the road, just below the slope, and is joined by the Whetstonemea Burn which flows under the road bridge further along. The two streams continue as the Shieldrigg Burn which flows into the upper reaches of River West Allen.
The ruined two-roomed farm of Whetstonemea
NY8045 : Whetstonemea stands on the ridge between the two streams on the edge of the enclosed fields known as The States. Further along the road, on its right hand side is a roofed building now called Mutton Hall. This name was reused from a demolished property which used to stand further along the road. In the distance, just beyond the junction to Carrshield, is the occupied house of Sunnyside.
Three of the miners' properties around The States have the unusual ending -mea: Whetstonemea, Rushymea and Breckon Mea (as Bracken House was apparently called on the 1841 census). The first of these, along with Whetstonemea Burn, is named after an area of marshy moorland still shown on the maps called Whetstone Mea
NY8045 : Whetstone Mea, Coalcleugh Moor. It is not known if there was a Rushy Mea and a Breckon Mea close to the other properties, although it seems more than likely.
"Meas are extensive stretches of land where springs of water abound, and consequently land where rushes, moss, and long grass flourish." William Morley Egglestone in Weardale Names of Moor and Fell (1886).
There is a good discussion of the miners' houses in Coalcleugh and around The States here:
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Mea and mere place-names in the North Pennines are discussed here:
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