A BARNARD Castle landmark appears to have to have provided inspiration for architects creating Prince Charles’ designer village in Dorset.
The play park at Poundbury, the Prince’s purpose-built town on his Duchy of Cornwall estate, is to open in the spring and will have 15ft high towers with suspended bridges and walkways, as well as swings, slides and a parkour area.
Already comments have been made about the remarkable resemblance of one of the constructions, called the Buttercross, to Barney’s 275-year-old Market Cross, sometimes known as the Butter Market.
Architects told Dorset Council planners last year they wished to reflect some of the landmark features of Poundbury in the £860,000 play park.
The octagonal timber construction is a recreation of Poundbury’s brick-built Buttermarket Bakery.
The resemblance of both these buildings to Barnard Castle’s Market Cross, constructed in 1747 by sheep merchant Thomas Breaks, is perhaps no surprise.
Prince Charles has been a regular visitor to Teesdale through the years, most recently four years ago when he officially opened the Quad Emergency Hub in Barnard Castle. His late grandmother, the Queen Mother, spent family holidays at nearby Streatlam Castle as a child and was patron of the Friends of the Bowes Museum from 1962.
The Royal family enjoyed shooting trips on the Holwick estate in the 1980s.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
