Dr George Edwards (c.1750–1823): The Doctor Behind Barnard Castle's Woodland Walks

Growing Up in Barnard Castle

George Edwards was born in Barnard Castle around 1750 into a family who had been established in the town for several generations. The Edwards family had made much of their money through tanning and property, owning houses, workshops, stables and tanyards around Market Place and Thorngate. His uncle Ambrose Edwards was involved in the family's extensive property dealings, and George eventually inherited considerable wealth. The family also held land around Bowes. 

Tanning was once an important industry in Barnard Castle, particularly around Thorngate, where animal hides were treated to produce leather. The Edwards family had been involved in the trade since at least the early eighteenth century, with several generations acquiring buildings and land around the town. Some of these properties remained in the family long after the original tanning businesses had changed hands.

George went to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and qualified as a Doctor of Medicine in June 1772. His thesis was called De Febris Causis, meaning On the Causes of Fevers, and a copy is preserved in the Wellcome Collection. He would have been about twenty one or twenty two when he completed his studies. Edwards went on to practise medicine, although his inherited wealth meant that he didn't depend on charging patients to earn a living.

A Doctor with Plans for Barnard Castle

Edwards became known locally for treating people without charging them and for spending money on charitable work. His wealth gave him the means to do this, but he also became increasingly involved in the way Barnard Castle was managed. During the eighteenth century, much of the town's business was dealt with through the parish Vestry and committees of local property owners. Edwards was serving on the Vestry by 1784 and had already spent several years putting forward suggestions for improvements.

In December 1781 he approached the Earl of Darlington about dividing the town fields, and the correspondence continued over the following years. The Earl was an important landowner in the area, and Edwards needed his agreement for some of the changes he wanted to make. By April 1784, the doctor was preparing to publish proposals for improving Barnard Castle and had written directly to the Earl asking him to consider them. A few months later he sent Lady Darlington a collection of his writings, thanking her for the reception his proposals had received.

One of the more serious matters he raised concerned illness in the town. In a letter written during 1784, Edwards referred to a fever which he stated had caused the deaths of more than one hundred people. He was chairman of a committee working on proposals intended to benefit Barnard Castle, and the fever was mentioned during correspondence about the town and the division of the moor. His medical training had included a study of fevers, so this was a subject he understood professionally as well as one affecting the place where he had grown up.

Edwards wasn't working alone. The committee included Hutton Perkins, John Raw, John Adamson, Robert Peverell and William Taylor senior, all men whose names appear in the business and property records of Barnard Castle. Their proposals led to further correspondence with the Earl of Darlington, although agreement was not always forthcoming. In September 1785, the Earl informed Edwards and the committee that a proposed compromise over the moor would be unfair to his son. He also suggested that those who were able and willing to help should provide assistance to the industrious poor. Edwards continued to pursue his proposals, although the Earl had his own interests to consider.

The Walks Through Flatts Wood

Edwards's best-known contribution to Barnard Castle was the improvement of the woodland paths through Flatts Wood. Before these works were carried out, the old routes through the trees were difficult to follow, particularly on the steeper ground. The woodland lay close to the town but wasn't nearly as accessible as it later became. Edwards obtained permission from the Earl of Darlington and arranged for winding paths to be made, paying for much of the work himself.

William Fordyce included an account of these improvements in his 1857 history of County Durham. He described how the earlier paths had been almost impassable and credited Edwards with arranging walks through the woodland towards the sulphurous spring northwest of Barnard Castle. The work involved making paths across the steep, wooded slopes so that people could reach parts of the valley that had previously been difficult to explore.

The older walks were later developed and extended, and by the second half of the nineteenth century the woodland had become a popular place for both local people and visitors. An article in the Richmond and Ripon Chronicle in July 1872 described the walks, seats and other arrangements as complete. Further proposals for the Cleveland Walk and routes towards Nab End followed during the 1870s and 1880s, although these improvements took place long after Edwards had died.

The paths around Flatts Wood, Cleveland Walk and the Red Well are familiar to many people who live in Barnard Castle today. They've changed considerably since Edwards's time, particularly with the arrival of the railway and the building of the viaduct across Percy Beck, but the wooded valley and its old routes are still there.

His Property in Barnard Castle and Bowes

George Edwards owned a considerable amount of property in Barnard Castle, including a mansion house in Market Place. A document from 1782 describes the house with its stable, neighbouring property and tanyard, while another from 1794 also mentions a garden. The Edwards family had owned buildings around the town for generations, and George continued to manage these properties alongside his work as a doctor. 

In December 1783, Edwards wrote to the Earl of Darlington asking for permission to lease about half an acre of Castle Garth. He wanted to make an entrance from his garden into the castle grounds so that he could take his horses through. The proposal involved a man named Wharton of the Bull inn, and a reply was sent from Raby Castle later that month. Edwards was also involved in more ordinary matters between neighbouring properties. In 1814, he gave Thomas Wheldon permission to use a passageway between their premises in Market Place.

His property interests extended out towards Bowes, where he owned farmland. In 1806, he leased Dove Hall Farm and Spital Farm to John Walton the elder for nine years. The agreement included plans for improving the land and drawings showing drainage work, with an annual rent starting at £240 and later increasing to £250. Edwards continued dealing in property and farmland for much of his life, even after moving to London.

From Barnard Castle to Revolutionary France

By the early 1790s, Edwards was living in London. A property deed from December 1792 identifies him as Dr George Edwards, formerly of Barnard Castle and then of Coleman Street, London. He continued to own property in Teesdale, although he was also spending a great deal of time developing his political and economic ideas. In the late 1780s he had published The Aggrandisement and National Perfection of Great Britain, a substantial work proposing changes to government, taxation, agriculture and the management of the country's finances.

In 1793, Edwards published proposals for a new French constitution in Paris, during one of the most unsettled periods of the French Revolution. King Louis XVI had been executed in January, France had abolished its monarchy, and the National Convention was attempting to establish a new government. Edwards produced a French-language publication titled Idées pour former une nouvelle constitution et pour assurer la prospérité et le bonheur de la France et d'autres nations, setting out his ideas for a constitution and the prosperity of France and other countries.

He was one of several British writers interested in the political changes taking place in France. Thomas Paine was among the better-known figures involved in French revolutionary politics, while other British reformers had travelled to Paris to support or participate in the movement. Edwards's own proposals were part of these arguments over government and political reform. He had already spent years developing plans for Britain, and the Revolution gave him another opportunity to put his ideas into print.

His Books, Political Ideas and the Claim About Income Tax

Edwards was an unusually prolific writer. By the time the original Dictionary of National Biography was published towards the end of the nineteenth century, the British Museum held forty-two of his books. He had been publishing proposals for political and economic reform since the late 1770s, and his titles could be extraordinarily long. One of his publications from 1816 was called The Practical System of Human Economy, which promised a new era in which the country's financial problems, public burdens and other difficulties could be put right through a single scheme.

Some of his suggestions were sensible enough, including reducing unnecessary government spending, improving agriculture and changing taxes that he believed damaged industry. Others were far more ambitious. He proposed selling Gibraltar, reorganising government departments and establishing boards to oversee various aspects of society. He also believed the national debt could be dealt with through his proposed reforms. Edwards had enormous confidence in his own ideas, once writing that God had destined him to discover the correct system for managing human affairs. An early biographer was rather dismissive of these claims, but the books themselves show how seriously Edwards took his political schemes.

He was particularly interested in taxation, and one argument concerned him personally. In 1799, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax to help pay for Britain's war against France. Edwards claimed that the idea had originated in his earlier writings and that the government hadn't given him the recognition he deserved. That same year he published The Income Tax Fathered, arguing that the new system of taxation should be credited to him.

There is no proof that Edwards invented income tax, but his 1799 publication establishes that he made the claim. It wasn't his only dispute over government finance, and he continued publishing proposals on taxation, public expenditure and national reform for many years. In 1800 he suggested measures to deal with food shortages and high prices, while later publications put forward plans for improving Britain's economy and even establishing a new arrangement between the world's major powers.

His Final Years

George Edwards died in Hammersmith, London, in 1823, aged around seventy-two. He had spent much of his later life in London but continued to own property in Barnard Castle and the surrounding countryside. His name appears in legal and financial records well into the nineteenth century, and he was still publishing his ideas about government and taxation during his later years.

In 1873, the Teesdale Mercury included an account of Edwards in its series Chapters in the History of Barnard Castle. The article remembered him for treating patients without charging them, his charitable work and the money he spent improving Flatts Wood. It also recorded that a cenotaph commemorating him had been placed inside St Mary's Church.

By then the woodland walks had been extended and improved by other people, and further changes would follow during the nineteenth century. Edwards had been dead for fifty years, but the paths he helped create were still being used by the people of Barnard Castle. They remain part of the walking routes around Flatts Wood today.

Explore More of Barnard Castle

Dr George Edwards played an important part in the history of Barnard Castle's woodland walks. You can read more about Flatts Wood and its history, or follow our Flatts Wood Circular Walk to explore the woodland and riverside paths yourself.

The old walking routes also connect with the history of Red Well Spring, while our Barnard Castle guide covers more of the town's buildings, walks and history.

You can also discover other local characters in our People of Teesdale collection.