A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



It is, in fact, rather a group of special exemptions and liberties than a proper 

 municipal charter. 1 



The case of Darlington presents great difficulty owing to the want of 

 documentary evidence. We know from Boldon Book that the place was a 

 borough in 1183 and that the industry of dyeing cloth was carried on there, 

 but we have no charter or other evidence throwing light on its internal 

 history. It has been described as a borough by prescription, 8 which as far 

 as the question of origins is concerned, is after all a ' petitio principii.' Its 

 situation in regard to the great northern road would in a large measure account 

 for the concentration of industrial population there, for it lies on the natural 

 route from Watling Street to Hartlepool and the mouth of the Tees. 8 As early 

 as 1 08 3 it was already a place of consequence, for Bishop William I. chose the 

 church of Darlington which he erected into a collegiate as a retreat for the 

 canons whom he had removed from Durham to make room for the monks.* 

 This church Bishop Pudsey rebuilt and he is said to have constructed himself 

 a house in the town, but although this is quite likely, it does not seem to be 

 well attested. 5 



The case of Norham is relatively simple. It was a community that 

 grew up about a border castle and in the fullness of time received from the 

 bishop a grant of the Newcastle customs. The castle of Norham was 

 built by Bishop Ranulf Flambard in 1 1 2 1 . In the chronicler's fine phrase, 

 ' condidit castellum in excelso prasruptae rupis super Twedam flumen, ut inde 

 latronum incursus inhiberet et Scottorum irruptiones.' 6 Bishop Pudsey 

 rebuilt this castle, increasing and extending its fortifications. 7 In a brief 

 charter this same bishop granted to his burgesses of Norham all liberties and 

 customs as freely as any borough north of Tees, and as Newcastle had them. 

 He further accorded them one or two special privileges and a confirmation of 

 the land and pasture which Bishop Ranulf had granted them. 8 The charter 

 is neither dated nor witnessed, but it must have been earlier than Boldon Book, 

 which records that the borough of Norham with its toll, stallage and for- 

 feitures is worth 25 marks. 



This completes the list of the boroughs existing in 1183, for Chester, 

 Stockton, and Auckland are of later creation, and although Hartlepool was 

 added to the bishopric by purchase towards the close of Pudsey 's long 

 pontificate, it formed no part of his possessions at the time of the Boldon survey.' 



Thus in 1183 we have found five municipalities having a common 

 character in their relation to the local sovereign, the bishop, and to the 

 mother town of Newcastle from which they derived the model of their con- 

 stitution. We have been able to mark the external conditions which 

 determined the growth of these communities. The castle and church at 



1 For further details in regard to Gateshead, cf. Brand, Newcastle-on-Tyne, i. 461 ff. 



8 Hutchinson, Hist, of Durham, iii. 184 ; Surtees, Hist, of Durham, iii. 357. 



8 Cf. H. MacLauchlan, Memoir written during a Survey of the Watling Street, London, 1852 ; the map of 

 the survey, 1857, and the Ordnance Survey maps. 



4 Symeon of Durham (Rolls Ser.), i. 123 n. 



6 Coldingham, cap. vii. ix., in Serif tores Tres. (Surtees Soc.), pp. 12, 14 : Leland, Collectanea, v. ii. 333 ; 

 Hutchinson, Durham, i. 181-182. 



6 Symeon of Durham (Rolls Ser.), i. 140. The date comes from Raine, North Durham, 257. 



7 Ibid. i. 1 68 ; Coldingham, cap. viii., in Scriptures Tres., p. 12. 



8 The text is in Hutchinson, Hist, of Durham, iii. 395, and also in Raine, North Durham, 257. 



9 Vid. sup., p. 267. 



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