Comprehensive Guide to the County of Durham. With maps and plans

Front matter

COUNTY OF D Is Ii II A M AND SUBURBS J.Jai IWU.ni, .. THE COUNTY OF DURHAM: ITS CASTLES, CHURCHES, AND MANOR-HOUSES. By J. R. BOYLE, F.S.A. A Large- Paper Edition of the above Work, limited to 250 Numbered Copies, strongly bottnd in Buckram, is published ut One Guin.'.a net. Besides the matter contained in the present Volume, there is appended an important Essay on the Place- Names of ike County, together with an exhaustive Glossary of Place-Names. TO SECURE REMAINING COPIES, EARLY APPLICATION MUST BE MADE. TO BE HAD FROM THE PUBLISHER— WALTER SCOTT, Ltd., Felling (R.S.O.), Co. Durham, OR ANY BOOKSELLER. COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE COUNTY OF DURHAM: WITH MAPS AND PLANS. BY J. R. BOYLE, F.S.A., 1 Author of " Vestiges of Old Newcastle and Gateshead," " The Lost Towns of the Huraber," " The Holderness Coast," etc.

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LIFE. ANNUITIES. Total Assets at Jan. 31, 1890, . . £10,075,213. 'T'HE Funds of the Life Department are not liable for Obligations under the Fire Department ', nor are the Funds of the Fire Department liable for Obligations under the Life Department. In this Company, therefore, the Investments for the Life Department are kept entirely separate from those of the Fire Department, as set forth in the Balance Sheet. NEWCASTLE BRANCH OFFICE— 25 Mosley Street. Local Board Directors. It. E. Dees, Esq Solicitor. H. T. Morton, Esq., Biddick Hall. Hilton Philipson, Esq, Colliery of I John C. Straker, Esq., The Leazes, Hexham. Andrew Leslie, Esq., Cox Lodge Hall, Owner, Newcastle. ■Tohn A. Woods, Esq., Banker. N. G. Clayton, Esq., Solicitor. Gosforth. Thomas G. Gibson. Esq , Solicitor. Henry N. Middleton, Esq , Banker.

Preface

. I have tried to compress into this book as much information as its size would permit. With only two or three slight and very unimportant exceptions, every building, every monument, every antiquity described in the following pages, is described from my own personal examination ; and whilst I have never hesitated to avail myself of the labours of others, I have taken all possible pains to verify every statement which I have adopted. The more important edifices which are described in this volume I have examined again and again, and many days have been spent, and many considerable journeys under taken, for the purpose of deciding some comparatively minor architectural question. No book of this character could be written, I venture to think, without some error creeping in. To a very considerable extent I have been compelled to traverse new ground.

Although invaluable descriptions of many of the most important structures in the county already existed, of others, including such edifices as the castles of Lumley, Brancepeth, and Witton, and the churches of Hartlepool, Gainford, Chester-le- Street, Houghton-ie-Spring, and many more of less striking character, no account whatever, of the slightest value to the student of architecture, 'had been written. Even of Durham Castle itself, the only reliable notices are two brief papers — one by the late Rev. Canon Ornsby, printed in the Journal of the British Archæological Association ; the other by Mr. W. H. D. PRE I. ICE. VI Longstaffe, printed in the Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Field Club. In inquiries in which, if I have had predecessors, the result of their labours has not been recorded, it is only to be expected that I shall have fallen into mistakes ; and though, in the interests of truth, I do not wish these to be over looked, I hope and believe they will be deemed of comparatively unimportant character.

It was at one time my intention to print a list of the authorities which I have consulted in the preparation of these pages, but such list would occupy far more space than would be commensurate with its value. I cannot, however, omit all mention of the sources of information which I have most extensively used. Every instance of direct and unaltered quotation is acknowledged by the employment of inverted commas, and also, in the vast majority of cases, by the mention of the writer's name. There are, how ever, many instances in which I have taken considerable liberties with a writers language, abridging in one place, amplifying in another, and often recasting the phrases throughout. It is due to the authors to whom I refer to specify the instances in which I have adopted this course. The section on the Geology of the County (pp. 5-10) has been almost entirely drawn from Professor Lebour's valuable Outlines of the Geology of Northumberland and Durham, and from Messrs. Howse and Kirkby's Synopsis of the.

Geology of Durham and Northumberland. The list of the Fauna (pp. 11-22) is compiled from Messrs. Mennell and Perkin's Catalogue of Mammals, Mr. John Hancock's Catalogue of Birds, Mr. Richard Howse's Catalogue of Fishes, and Mr. George Waile's Catalogue of Lepidoptcra, all printed either in the Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists'' Field Club, or in those of the Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham. For the account of the Darlington and Stockton Railway (pp. 77-S1) I am indebted to the writings of Dr. Smiles and the late Mr. James Clephan. The account of Coal Mining, past and present (pp. 84-112), is derived chiefly from a paper by Dr. Wilson of Alnwick (Tyneside Naturalists' Transactions), one by Mr. William Dodd (Land We

PREFACE.

. VII Live In), and from the works of Mr. Matthias Dunn and Mr. Robert L. Galloway. These are subjects on which I am entirely dependent upon the labours of others ; and if, here or in the Introduction itself, I have omitted to acknowledge my indebted ness, I must claim to have erred unwittingly. In the body of the book my obligations are of a different character. I have accepted or rejected the statements and opinions of others as they seemed to my best judgment to be sound or unsound. Whilst on almost every page I have availed myself of the labours of Hutchinson and Surtees, the historians of the county, the special character of this book has made my indebtedness greater to more recent writers. The various archæological essays of Mr. W. H. D. Longstaffe have been of immeasurable service, and the papers of the Rev. J. F. Hodgson — the Willis of north-country archæologists — on the churches of Haughton, Coniscliffe, Aycliffe, and Staindrop, and on the castle of Raby, have been used to an extent which, but for their supreme merit, would be unpardonable.

In writing on what, in more senses than one, is the great subject of the book — Durham Cathedral, — whilst I have neglected no known source of information, but have drawn freely from the pages of Raine, Ornsby, and G. M. Hills, I have derived my chief help from the account of St. Cuthbert's great fane in King's Cathedral Bsandbook, and from the still more valuable and exhaustive pam phlet of Canon Greenwell. The descriptions of Hollinside and of the churches of Ebchester and Medomsley are abridged from papers by Mr. C. C. Hodges, the author of Hexham Abbey, and who, I gladly take this opportunity of acknowledging, has helped me in many ways, freely communicating his vast stores of architectural and archæological knowledge. The bell inscriptions given in these pages are in all cases derived from the notes of Mr. Robert Blair, F.S.A., printed in the Proceedings of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, and to whom I am indebted for the per. mission to make this use of his labours. The plans of Brancepeth and Raby castles are reproduced from illustrations made by Mr.

PREFACE.

. VIII J. P. Pritchett, of Darlington, ,to a paper contributed by him to the Journal of the Arcl æological Association. I am indebted to Mr. Pritchett and the Association for the generous permission to use them in this volume. I cannot close these acknowledgments without expressing my sense of the great advantage which has resulted to this book from the careful revision given to a considerable portion of the volume by the Rev. Canon Greenwell, of Durham. London, June 1892.