CITY OF DURHAM 



THE City of Durham is situated in 

 the southern portion of the coal 

 measures which extend from the 

 Coquet to the Tees. It lies upon 

 and around a central peninsula 

 formed by the River Wear 13 miles above its 

 mouth.i This curious horseshoe bend is one 

 of several loops which the river makes as it 

 passes from the western uplands to Wearmouth. 

 The peninsula is about 800 yds. long and about 

 250 yds. from bank to bank of the river at its 

 narrowest point. It incloses about 58 acres, 

 and this area forms what Leland says is 'alonely 

 caullid the wauUed Toune of Duresme.' 

 The name Durham, however, comprises, and 

 has for centuries comprised, various ancient 

 jurisdictions outside the peninsula. One of 

 these, as we shall see, has some claim, at all 

 events, to be considered the original settlement 

 and to antedate Durham itself, strictly so 

 called, by at least two centuries. From this 

 central peninsula the city now extends in various 

 directions over the undulating neighbourhood 

 and in somewhat straggling order, so that as 

 an early local writer says : ' I may liken the 

 form of this Bishopric to the letter A and Durham 

 to a crab ; supposing the city for the belly and 

 the suburbs for the claws.' ** 



The lay-out of Durham, like most mediaeval 

 towns, is so arranged that the roads and bridges 

 bring all the traffic through the market-place in 

 order to collect the tolls from merchandise and 

 give entertainment to travellers. The suburbs 

 grew up at the three chief entrances to the city. 

 In this way Framwellgate and Crossgate arose 

 at the foot of Framwellgate Bridge on the roads 

 from Newcastle and the north and from Lan- 

 chester and the north-west ; Gilesgate, at the 

 entrance of the roads from the east, one from 

 Sunderland and the other from Hartlepool, the 

 chief mediaeval port of the Palatinate ; and 

 Elvet, at the foot of Elvet Bridge, along the road 

 from Darlington and the south. Although the 

 city still maintains its importance as the centre 

 of the Palatinate, it has not developed indus- 



' V.C.H. Dur. i, 25. 



1* Robert Hegge, Legend of St. Cuthbert (1626, ed. 

 J. B. Taylor, 1816), 2. 



trially in the way that other northern towns 

 have done. For this reason it retains many of 

 its ancient features, and the plan of the city and 

 its suburbs, with their tortuous thoroughfares, 

 has remained practically unaltered since the 

 Middle Ages. The older part of the city lies 

 about the market-place, on the west side of 

 which is the modern town hall, and on the 

 north, standing isolated by the entrance to 

 Claypath, is the modern church of St. Nicholas. 

 An equestrian statue of the third Marquess of 

 Londonderry completes the catalogue of some- 

 what uninteresting features of the market-place. 

 The house on the north-west side of Silver 

 Street (No. 38), now occupied as a shop by 

 Messrs. Caldcleugh, belonged to Sir John Duck, 

 and retains internally much characteristic work 

 of the late 17th century. The staircase has 

 richly carved strings, twisted balusters and 

 square carved newels. Over the fireplace of the 

 front room on the first floor, which is lined with 

 panelling, is a curious oil painting emblematical 

 of Duck's career, containing views of the hospital 

 founded by him at Lumley and of his house at 

 Harwell-on-the-Hill. The house numbered 12 

 on the same side of the street is an early 17th- 

 century gabled building of brick three stories in 

 height. The ' Dunelme Cafe,' on the opposite 

 side, is a half-timber house of three oversailing 

 stories of about the same date. 



Of the old work remaining in Gilesgate, the 

 houses numbered 2 and 5 are early 17th-century 

 buildings, considerably modernised ; and num- 

 bers 21 and 23, which are of two stories with 

 gabled dormers, though much altered, appear to 

 be of the same period. The ' Woodman Inn,' on 

 the same side, a plastered two-storied building 

 with a moulded stone entrance, bears a panel 

 inscribed 'G M 1715.' Number 194 on the 

 opposite side is a plastered 18th-century house 

 of two stories with a flat canopy over the en- 

 trance supported by wrought iron brackets. 



Saddler Street has been levelled and filled up 

 for a depth of many feet, and deep below its 

 present surface are the remains of the old rising 

 bridge to the Gateway, one or two arches of 

 which may be seen in the lower basements of 

 premises on the east side. Spanning the street 

 at its southern end stood the North Gate. Of 



