The North Pennines, Teesdale and the Greta Bridge area – including the Meeting of the Waters – became a source of inspiration for romantic artists, poets and writers during the eighteenth century.

River confluences had a special significance for the Gaulish legions and auxiliaries who were stationed in North Britain during the Roman occupation.

[7] Before the arrival of the railways in the 1850s, Greta Bridge had been an important overnight stop for the London to Carlisle coach.

[h][i] During the eighteenth century Teesdale became a popular destination for romantic artists, poets and writers, who inspired others to follow.

In 1799 William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge explored the area around Greta Bridge, after visiting Mary Hutchinson at Sockburn.

[h] The romantic painter John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842) first explored the Greta Bridge area in 1805 when 23 years old.

[k] Cotman's best known work from his early period is the watercolour Greta Bridge (1805), now in the British Museum, which he painted from sketches made during his visit to Rokeby Park.

Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, published 1810, had been hugely successful and placed the Loch Katrine in the Trossachs area firmly on the tourist map, boosting the economy of local towns.

When Scott announced to John Bacon Sawrey Morritt that he was planning to write a similar poem based around Teesdale, Morritt offered his services as a guide, possibly anticipating how it might spark a wealthy tourist trade, and boost the local economy.