SORRY for the lack of posts on the Memories blog: it is due to a lack of time, rather than no inclination.

This week's Memories is about the County Bridge at Barnard Castle, and it touches upon the 1569 Rising of the North.

When Queen Elizabeth I proclaimed that England would be a Protestant nation, the north rose in favour of Catholicism, led by Charles Neville, the Earl of Westmoreland, who lived in Raby Castle, and Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland.

In the autumn of 1569, they marched from Raby to Durham Cathedral, burned the Protestants' books and conducted a Catholic service. Then they fled.

Sir George Bowes (1527-80), who supported the Queen and lived in Streatlam Castle, just five miles from Raby Castle, was so frightened by his neighbour's warlike behaviour that he barricaded himself into Barnard Castle.

Darlington became the rebels headquarters. "At Darnton," wrote Sir George on November 17, "they offer great wage to such as will serve them."

Men with big sticks drove reluctant Darlingtonians into St Cuthbert's Church, where Westmoreland and Northumberland "lewdly" heard mass and liberally sprinkled holy water about.

On November 18, the rebels marched from Darlington to York and returned on November 29.

"They have a greate number of fat cattle that they have stolen on their journeye, which they drive to Darnton," complained Sir George from inside Barnard Castle.

Having secured practically all of the North-East, the rebels turned their attention to Barnard Castle and laid siege to Sir George until December 14, when, curiously, they let him out without doing him any further harm than they playground taunts had caused.

On December 17, on Croft Bridge, Sir George met the Queen's leader, the Earl of Sussex, and Darlington's old favourite, Sir Ralph Saddler. Together they had 7,000 men, and the Earl of Warwick was fast approaching with another 12,000. They moved from Croft towards Darlington, and in the face of such large armies the rebels fled, melting into the northern dales. The Rising of the North was over.

The Queen's retribution was swift and bloody. Some sources say she reckoned 481 Darlington men had joined the rebellion. Death sentences were issued against them all - including every one of the town's 23 constables who had failed to keep order. But all who were able to give her a satisfactory amount of money, property and/or possessions escaped with their lives.

Only the poorest 99 were executed, their bodies hung from trees along Coniscliffe Road as a reminder to all who contemplated rebellion.

Sir George Bowes' version of events is a little less bloody. He was in charge of the hangings, and kept a little black book in which he noted the tally of his victims and where they came from.

He reckoned that 83 men from central Darlington had joined up, and he executed 16 of them.

Bowes makes no mention of the Coniscliffe Road story. But he was not adverse to a little brutality. He hanged a rebel named Harrison, of Barnard Castle, in his own orchard at Streatlam Castle, and as he watched the body swinging, he said: "The best fruit a tree can bear is a dead traitor".

Sir George was probably in a v. bad mood, though, because when he had returned home to Streatlam, he discovered that Westmorelands men had "utterly defaced" the castle, carrying off everything that was portable - including 40 feather beds - and smashing up everything that was nailed down.

Although the Queen rewarded him for his loyalty, Sir George could not afford to restore his castle, and he died there in 1580 of a broken heart - his ghost lingering to haunt the shell of his home. His descendants spent three generations scrimping and saving to rebuild their grand castle.

His ghost, and that of the executed Harrison, was said to haunt Streatlam until the castle fell derelict and was blown up in 1959.