BOLDON BOOK 



The vills of Oxenhall and Little Haughton are connected with Dar- 

 lington by services which they have to render there, but they do not figure 

 in the Halmote Rolls, although they reappear in Hatfield's Survey, where they 

 are held as sub-manors. 1 The whole group, however, is intimately connected 

 in the general classification of vills and forms, as we shall see, the second or 

 agricultural type. 



Auckland Group in the Halmote Rolls : Ricknall, Middridge, Heigh- 

 ington, Killerby, West Thickley, West Auckland, Redworth, Coundon, 

 Byers, Escomb, East Thickley, Newton Cap, Bondgate-in-Auckland. 



Vills in the Boldon Book : New Ricknall and Ricknall Alia ; Heigh- 

 ington and Killerby ; Middridge and Thickley ; Newton-by-Thickley (West 

 Thickley in Hatfield's Survey) ; Redworth and Old Thickley ; North Auck- 

 land, Escomb, Newton, and West Auckland ; Great Coundon, Little 

 Coundon, and Binchester ; Byers. 



The grouping of these vills in Boldon Book comes out very clearly. The 

 Ricknalls have a common demesne, but they stand in the Survey between 

 Carlton and Darlington. Heighington and Killerby have the demesne, or at 

 least the hall, in common. Middridge and Thickley have a common demesne 

 and common pasture. Old Thickley, we are expressly told, was made of the 

 land of Redworth. Then North and West Auckland, Newton, and Escomb, 

 form a sub-division known as Aucklandshire, the terms of their tenure are 

 alike, and they have certain obligations in common. The Coundons and 

 Binchester are also connected, the first two by a common demesne, and the 

 last, although separated in the Survey, by ploughing services at Coundon. 

 Byers appears in Boldon Book as an assart held by a free tenant in connexion 

 with the vill of Hunwick. Bondgate-in-Auckland, like the settlement of 

 the same name in Darlington, is later than Boldon Book. 8 All these vills, 

 except Redworth, the Ricknalls, and the Coundons, conform to the Boldon 

 type. 



Sadberge Group in the Halmote Rolls : Sadberge and Newbiggin. 



Sadberge was not acquired by the Bishop until after the composition of 

 Boldon Book, and it does not therefore appear in that record. Bishop Pudsey 

 purchased it from Richard I., who had held it as a manor with a wapentake 

 appurtenant.* Its manorial organization was therefore complete when it 

 came under the Bishop's control. 



Wolsingham Group in the Halmote Rolls : Stanhope, Lynesack, 

 Bishopley, Bedburn, Witton, Hamsterley, Wolsingham. 



Vills in the Boldon Book : Wolsingham and Rogerley ; Broadwood ; 

 Stanhope. 



The case here is curious, for all but two of the vills composing the 

 manor have come into being since the composition of Boldon Book. A little 

 attention to the type of the chief vills gives the explanation. Wolsingham 

 and Stanhope are the typical forest vills, and the manor no doubt grew and 

 increased as more and more forest land was taken under cultivation. In 1 183 

 these vills contained an unusually large number of tenants, who, if they were 



1 HatfieLTi Stirr. (Surtees Soc.), 7, 9. 



1 Canon Green well conjectures that the name ' which is not uncommon in some of oar older towns, it 

 derived from the bond-tenants living in that street.' Hatfitlft Sure. (Surtees Soc.), 277. 



* 'Mancrium nostrum de Sadberge cum wapentagio ad idem mancrium pertinente,' Cart. Ric. I. in 

 Serif Kret Trti. (Surtees Soc.), App. No. xl. Cf. Coldingham, cap. ix. in ibid. p. 14, and App. No*, xli. xlii. 



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