CITY OF DURHAM 



a somewhat obscure allusion to the conditions 

 of life in the abbey is interesting. It occurs 

 in 1272 in connexion with a proposed surrender 

 of Bearpark or Beaurepaire, on the western side 

 of the city, a refugium of the prior lying in the 

 wide open valley and enlivened by the breezes 

 that sweep in from the western uplands. The 

 monks made emphatic protest against the pro- 

 posal, alleging that the convent cannot agree 

 to give up ' Beaurepaire ubi conventus quorum 

 labor est gravis et aer corruptus habet pro 

 majori parte suam recreationem.' *' This may 

 be interpreted to mean that it is their one special 

 place of relaxation, since the work at Durham 

 is heavy and the air bad. But in what sense bad ? 

 The actual Durham air is healthy, but somewhat 

 sleepy in summer ; but this is, perhaps, not 

 likely to be the chronicler's meaning. It has been 

 suggested that the words refer to what was, in 

 days of imperfect sanitation, a very real draw- 

 back in the life of the monastery and city. 

 Durham Abbey did not receive the purging 

 help that the river so generally gives in other 

 places. Here the latrines gave upon the pre- 

 cipitous bank some 105 feet above the Wear, 

 and the house depended in a general way on the 

 length of the drop. With the river low, as it often 

 is in summer, and with a prevailing westerly 

 breeze, the defects of mediaeval drainage must 

 have been constantly and painfully apparent. 

 Under such circumstances, the monks were in 

 consternation at the prospect of losing their chief 

 holiday resort. 



The long-standing dispute as to the Arch- 

 bishop of York's right to visit the chapter and 

 the see, introduced some strange episodes in 

 which the city took its part. In 1274 during 

 the vacancy after Bishop Stichlll's death Arch- 

 bishop Giilard, who was much concerned with 

 the reform of abuses at York, made a visitation 

 of the monastery, after which he proceeded to 

 the castle in pontifical state, no objection being 

 taken to his action.^* Giffard's successor. Arch- 

 bishop Wickwane, a prelate of more vigorous 

 reforming tendency, found a very different 

 temper prevailing when he visited Durham. 

 The change was due to a presentation dispute, 

 Wickwane refusing to institute a nominee of 

 prior and convent to a living in Yorkshire. The 

 Archbishop by an unwarranted stretch of his 

 authority demanded to visit the chapter during 

 the temporary absence of the Bishop of Durham 

 and entered the city without opposition. As he 



3* Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 49. 

 The suggestion in the text was made to the writer 

 by Canon J. T. Fowler. The quotation shows the 

 value of Bearpark to the monks in general at this time. 

 In severe weather change of air would probablv be 

 sought not in breezy Bearpark but in the warm and 

 secluded river valley in which Finchale lies. 



« Ibid. 



came up Saddlergate to the great north gate 

 of the castle in order to pass up to the cathedral 

 he found his way blocked by the barons of the 

 bishopric. Halting there, he addressed the 

 people and proceeded to excommunicate the 

 bishop, who naturally sided with the monastery, 

 as well as the prior and convent, citing them to 

 undergo his visitation at a later date. An 

 appeal to Rome issued in a triumph for the 

 prior,^* but the death of the bishop in 1283 

 renewed the strife. Wickwane again journeyed 

 to Durham to force what he considered his 

 undoubted right sede vacante. The prior even 

 refused him admission to the cathedral. Upon 

 this the Archbishop descended the hill and 

 made his way to the church of St. Nicholas, 

 which lay upon episcopal land in the borough 

 of Durham, and was probably claimed as his by 

 right during the vacancy of the see. Hereupon 

 some of the youths of the borough made up 

 their minds to resist the Archbishop's action as 

 an invasion of the rights of Durham and so 

 alarmed the Archbishop by their demonstration 

 that he was glad to escape from the church. 

 He made his vvay, apparently, through a back 

 door and down a flight of steps leading into 

 Walkergate, and so, with what secrecy he could, 

 to the river bank and thus to the hospitable 

 shelter of Kepier. The brief chronicle of this 

 escape contains one incidental reference of 

 importance when it tells us that Wickwane fled 

 down the steps ' towards the schools.' We have 

 already discovered an allusion to schools in the 

 Bailey, more than a century before this date, 

 but here we get what seems to be a distinct 

 trace of schools in the borough which was 

 directly a part of the episcopal section of Dur- 

 ham. It may be added that the popular Hugh 

 Darlington, who had resigned the priorate to 

 Richard Claxton, the prior opposing Wickwane, 

 was re-elected in 1285 and made his second 

 tenure of office memorable by bringing the strife 

 to an end.^' It was Prior Hugh's last con- 

 siderable act, for soon after this he began to 

 show the infirmities of age and was forced to 

 resign. 



Another scene enacted in 1290 within the 

 cathedral throws some light upon mediaeval 

 customs and manners in Durham. There were, 

 of course, various serjcanties and services by 

 which the barons of the bishopric held their 

 lands and houses. The repulse of Wickwane 

 at the North Gate was effected by the barons 

 of the bishopric (j)er milites episcopatus), and their 

 part in the drama looks as if the resistance of 

 invasion was a duty of military service at the 

 North Gate. The tenures are very imperfectly 

 known, but the story now to be told shows that 



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3« Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tra (Surt. Soc), 60. 

 " Ibid. 73. 



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