RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



excellent and the windows ornamented. The piscina 

 is preserved in Mr. Deighton's garden wall at 

 Winston." 



This is a remarkable statement, because in 131 5 

 Bishop Kellaw, when granting a quitclaim for 

 the rent of this ground, speaks of it as ' certain 

 waste lands and wood in Heighley (Hegheley) 

 in Winston called Hermitage ' as if the cell or 

 chapel was even then nothing more than a 

 memory.^* 



In 1340 Bishop Bury granted a licence to 

 select a site in Gateshead churchyard for an 

 anchoress' cell ; ^^ and in 1373 Bishop Hatfield 

 granted to William Shepherd, a hermit, a piece 

 of waste land, 80 ft. by 40 ft., for a messuage. 

 William in return was to pay id. a year for 

 life." 



A few years later (20 May, 1387) a similar 

 grant was made to a hermit of the name of 

 Robert Lambe. Bishop Fordham gave him an 

 acre of waste land in Eighton for the building of 

 a hermitage and a chapel in honour of the Holy 

 Trinity, on condition of his offering prayers for 

 the bishop, his predecessors, and successors.-* 



There was an anchorage near Pounteys Bridge, 

 as well as the chapel there. In December, 1426, 



■* Hist. Dur. iv (i), 38. 



" Reg. Pakt. Dun. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 1280. 



" Ibid, iii, 300. In 1366 Bishop Hatfield collated 

 Richard de Cavil! to th? hermitage of Rynstanhirst 

 (Dur. Epis. Reg. Hatfield, fol. 141). I have not 

 been able to locate this hermitage. 



"Rot. Hatfield, 2, m. 4a'. 



" Rot. Fordham, m. 9. 



John, prior of Durham, collated William Bynde- 

 lawes of Burdon in Lonsdale, hermit, to this her- 

 mitage, then vacant and in his collation.^' 



In the fifteenth century the notices of hermits 

 are not so frequent, but they still continued to 

 exist. In February, 1434-5, Robert Perules, 

 ' hermit of the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen of 

 Barmore,' in the parish of Gainford, lost his 

 chapel, his house which stood by it, and all their 

 contents, by fire, everything being totally de- 

 stroyed. Bishop Langley granted an indulgence 

 of forty days to all contributing to the repair of 

 the chapel and the support of the hermit.^" 



^" H93 John Auckland, prior of Durham, 

 by means of a very curious document ' created ' 

 a hermit ; i.e. conferred the rank or degree of 

 hermit upon one John Man, a Yorkshireman, 

 who desired to escape from the world and to 

 assume the profession of an anchoret.'^ 



It seems probable that there was at one time 

 an anchoret, male or female, at Chester-le- 

 Street. In the Chantry Certificate of 1548^^ 

 there is a mention of 'the Anker's House.' 

 There was then no ' incumbent,' and from the 

 quantity of lead on the roof the building would 

 appear to have been but small. In 1627 an 

 almshouse at Chester-le-Street in which dwelt 

 certain poor widows, was known as < the 

 Anchorage.''' 



-' Surt. Hist. Dur. ili, 228. 



'° Dur. Epis. Reg. L.-ingley, fol. 2 1 7. 



'■ Reg. Parv. iv, fol. i6b. 



^' Surt. Soc. Publ. vol. 22, App. vi, p. Ixiv. 



"Parish Books of Chester-Ie-Street, a.d. 1627. 



131 



