The Tale of the Market Cross Bullet Holes
A Teesdale Tale carried through metal, memory and a mystery high above the town.
If you stop in the middle of Barnard Castle and look up at the old Market Cross, you will notice something unusual right at the very top. The weather vane, which has turned above the town for generations, carries two small round holes that do not look accidental at all. They are neat, symmetrical and shaped exactly like the marks left by musket balls.
These are the famous bullet holes, made long before the modern town grew around them, and they have puzzled and entertained people here for generations.
The marks themselves are real and undeniable. They match the force and shape of musket impacts, the kind made by smooth bore weapons used in the late seventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds. Historians agree the shots were fired on purpose, not by accident, and that the Market Cross was standing at the centre of a very lively town when it happened. Barnard Castle bustled with Volunteer soldiers drilling on the cobbles, markets filling the town and official announcements being read from the shelter beneath the Cross.
The true origin of the bullet holes has been lost to time. No newspaper from the period recorded anything unusual happening, and no surviving document names the men involved. What we do have is something different: a story that has travelled from voice to voice, from pub counters to barber chairs, passed on simply because people liked telling it.
According to this long standing tale, the year was 1804 and the Teesdale Volunteer Legion was active in the town. Two local men were in the Turks Head pub, arguing loudly about who was the better shot. One was said to be Taylor, a Volunteer soldier. The other was Cruddas, a gamekeeper for the Earl of Strathmore. Both were used to firing muskets, one in military drill and one in the fields, and neither had any intention of losing an argument.
As the story goes, the disagreement grew more heated until both decided there was only one way to settle it. They stepped outside into the night air, stood in the doorway of the Turks Head and aimed their muskets at the weather vane on top of the Market Cross. The distance was long enough to stretch the skills of even a trained marksman, but the tale insists they fired anyway. Incredibly, both shots hit the vane.
Those two small holes at the top of the Cross, the story claims, are the lasting proof of their contest.
There is another version too. Some people think the shots may have come from a gunsmith’s shop instead, simply because the accuracy seems too impressive to have come from the pub doorway. Yet even those who favour this explanation admit that the Turks Head version is the one Barnard Castle has loved the longest.
No written record confirms the contest, and no official paper names Taylor or Cruddas. That is why this tale lives gently between memory and mystery. What is completely true is the metalwork itself. The bullet marks are real, they were made by real muskets, and they remain one of the Market Cross’s most intriguing features.
Stand here today, with traffic rolling past and people heading into the shops, and it is hard to imagine two men testing their aim across the cobbles. But the holes above remain quiet and unchanging, a reminder that the town we know has lived many lives. Some parts of its story were written down. Others, like this one, were simply enjoyed, repeated and passed on.
And sometimes the tale itself becomes part of the heritage.
The weather vane on the Market Cross, still carrying the two tiny bullet holes from long ago.
Part of our Discover Teesdale collection, explore the dale’s walks, waterfalls, history and quiet forgotten places. This tale is shaped by real marks in the metalwork and a story passed down through generations, a small mystery that has become part of Barnard Castle’s heritage.
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