A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



that, if not of pre-historic date, these works may be records of the struggle 

 between the English and Scots in the fighting days of the Plantagenets. 



STANHOPE : PARK PASTURE. An oblong enclosure on the north bank 

 of the Wear, having a steep natural slope on the south side, from the foot of 

 which the land is level to the river, which runs close to the south-east angle 

 of the work. To the north the ground rises slightly, but otherwise the site 

 is nearly level. To the west is a small stream running nearly due south to the 

 Wear, through low and partly marshy ground. The area is enclosed by a low 

 bank, which is double on the west, and on the south and west sides are traces 

 of a rampart of pebbles. A short distance to the south-west, and close to the 



river, is a mound, now nearly destroyed, which 

 seems to have been in part composed of pebbles 

 or boulders like those of the oblong enclosure. 



STANHOPE : PARK CRAG. A stirrup-shaped 

 area obtained by levelling the gentle slope of the 

 site from south to north, the soil being used to 

 make up the ground on the south boundary. The 

 area thus obtained is divided midway by a low ridge 

 which runs north and south, extending some way 

 beyond the north boundary. Some distance to the 



'PARK PASTURE, STANHOPE. east a second ridge runs parallel to the first, being 



joined at right angles by a third, which prolongs 

 the line of the south boundary of the levelled site. All banks and ridges 

 show traces of rough walling. To the south and west the ground slopes 

 down steeply to Park Burn, but on the north the ground rises to a wooded 

 hill. There is said to have been a third little enclosure at Stanhope, and 

 Mr. Boyle suggests that these small camps may have been formed during the 

 struggles between English and Scots in Edwardian days. 



DYKES AND BANKS 



SCOTS DYKE. The Scots Dyke, known under a variety of names in 

 different parts of its long course, has been an object of speculation to writers 

 from the early part of the eighteenth century to the present time. From 

 Mr. Edward Wooler, the last to write upon the subject, we learn that the 

 most northern trace of the dyke is found at Galashiels in Selkirkshire, where 

 the ditch is 25 feet wide, and has on each side a rampart of stones and earth 

 9 feet to 10 feet high. Thence southwards it is with many breaks to be 

 followed to Peel Fell in Northumberland. Crossing that county it enters 

 Durham at Shorngate Cross, from which point it may here and there be 

 traced to Weardale, where it is in evidence at Stanhope ; thence it seems 

 to follow the river till it crosses from the northern bank at Witton and runs 

 south to Cockfield, then turning south-east to Gainford, where, crossing the 

 river Tees, it passes out of the county of Durham. Mr. Wooler finds traces 

 of the dyke southwards to the Swale, and considers it probable that it may 

 be followed far south, possibly even to Wincobank, the great stronghold of 

 the Brigantes which overlooks the valley of the Don near Sheffield. 



COCKFIELD. Here are the remains of an entrenchment, about 2,300 feet 

 in length, which guarded the space now occupied by the small ' camps ' to 

 which reference has already been made. 



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