COWSHILL is such a far-flung place even the internet is struggling to catch up.

It has perhaps the barest Wikipaedia page on the web – just a single pargraph: “Cowshill is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated at the top of Weardale, between Lanehead and Wearhead.”

Er, that’s it.

Nevertheless, an invitation to speak is seldom turned down so I made the hour-long drive from Darlington, through Wolsingham, Stanhope and St John’s Chapel, to address the Local History Group.

“Why’s it called Cowshill?” seemed a reasonable question to ask a local history group.

“Don’t really know,” replied group chairwoman Heather Ross. “Probably because cows used to graze on the hill.”

Fair enough, although the way the locals drop their haitches, it might have more to do with an ancient outbreak of foot and mouth.

The dedicated little group recently raised the magnificent sum of £4,000 to renew the path at the local church. St Thomas is officially recorded as the parish church of Heatherycleugh parish, although, according to the Church of England’s website, there is actually no such village as Heatherycleugh.

The site goes on to say the church was rebuilt in 1912 after an encroaching quarry forced the abandonment of the original site.

Cowshill has also had a bit of a problem with an 80-metre sinkhole which opened up last August above an old lead mine, not too far from John Hensby’s place.

It was surrounded by a safety cordon but the sheep – not cows – kept pulling it down. It remains an unresolved local feature but they’re looking into it.

These days, the history group is wholly focussed on filling the gaps ahead of a service at the church in August to mark the 70th anniversary of VJ Day. The group wants to collect as much World War Two memorabilia from Weardale as possible to go with the Bevin Boy badge, once owned by villager George Bell Rutherford, who died in 2012.

Anyone who can help should contact Heather Ross on 01388 537439 or, better still, have a very pleasant drive out to the non-existent parish of Heatherycleugh.

FROM DRY-STONE WALLS TO PAYWALLS...

THANK you to those who have been in touch following last week’s launch of a metered pay-wall on The Northern Echo’s website.

Apart from the chap who left a message that “The Northern Echo had signed its own death warrant”, it’s been a mainly encouraging start.

To recap, visitors can read ten articles for free before they are asked to register, then another ten before being asked to pay £1 a week. It’s early days, of course – a slow-burn – but the first week saw nearly 50 people subscribe.

And, to my delight, they included at least one member of the Cowshill Local History Group. There was Jeff Bailey, sitting at a village hall table, in the middle of nowhere, with his iPad logged on to The Northern Echo.

Albeit a touch reluctantly, he told me he’d signed up to the digital deal – not bad value, he supposed – so, for £1 a week, he can surf our content ‘til the cows come home.