Many have often
wondered how the now merged settlements of Egglescliffe and Eaglescliffe came
into separate existence. Such similar names – how strange! I’m not sure anyone
knows the answer for sure, but here’s the generally accepted theory.
Let’s get one
thing straight: Egglescliffe (to the south) has been there for at least 1,000
years. And look on the OS map of 1857 and you will find no sign of Eaglescliffe
immediately to the north. All you’ll see is a newly-built railway feature
called Preston Junction. The railway line which ran through this part of the
world was, of course, the famous 1820s effort, the ‘Stockton & Darlington’.
Originally,
however, the course of the line was a little to the east of the 1857 (and
present-day) affair, and ran through the developing Preston Hall/Park estate.
The estate’s owner wasn’t best pleased about this, and made the railway owners
re-align the track to run on the other
side of the main road in the early 1850s. Coincidentally, another, newer, line
was also being laid at this time (coming north from Northallerton), so there
was (and still is) a two-mile stretch of parallel lines running north from
Egglescliffe. This was quite handy, as it gave the railway developers a chance
to drop a new station into the gap between the two lines to act as an
interchange – and it seems to have been originally called ‘Preston Junction’.
However, due to the inconvenience of having to move their line, the Stockton
& Darlington owners decided to quickly rename the spot ‘Egglescliffe’,
after the nearby village.
Apparently,
though, when the telegram was sent to the sign-maker, he somehow substituted an
‘a’ for a ‘g’ (or perhaps did so deliberately, thinking the instructions were
in error), and the name of the new station became ‘Eaglescliffe’ – a place
which didn’t even exist at the time! Eventually a new settlement grew up around
the stopping-off point which, in turn, adopted the corrupted name.
Well, that’s the
story, anyway.
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