Demble

An elderly lady who was born in Aycliffe says that that the lane from the railway bridge arch that is on the east side of the river Skerne, to the left fork that leads to Heworth Farm, is called the Demble. She played in the Demble when she was a girl.

Demble is a Norse word for a ‘homestead by a ravine’. A little stream ran down to the Skerne. Was there a Norse settlement on the east side of the Skerne, before there was a Saxon settlement on the west side?

Ketton Rivulets.

To the north-east of Newton Ketton, in a singularly shaped field, four rivulets have their sources; and during a great part of the year water may be seen running in four different directions.

Source: Whelan’s Durham : 1894 edition, page 439.

Newton Ketton is about a mile south of Aycliffe.