A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



The GATEHOUSE, on the east side of the 

 abbey garth, still remains in a very perfect con- 

 dition, though restored. The gateway proper is 

 set in the middle of the entrance passage, and 

 has the usual greater and lesser doorways. The 

 outer porch, as well as the gate hall, has a vaulted 

 roof of quadripartite form with ridge ribs and 

 tiercons, the boss in the porch being carved 

 with the arms of the See of Durham, borne by 

 an angel, while that of the inner compartment 

 has the badge of Prior Castell. Each compart- 

 ment has a wall arcade of three plain chamfered 

 arches, and the great arch at each end of the 

 entrance passage is a pointed one of two con- 

 tinuous chamfered orders. The upper story is 

 lighted at each end by a four-centred three-light 

 window with vertical tracery, and terminates in 

 a flat-pitched gable. Both windows are modern 

 restorations, and the upper part of the walling is 

 much rebuilt. On the east side, facing the Bailey, 

 are two empty canopied niches — one on each 

 side of the window.' In the room over the 

 archway Castell renewed the former chapel of 

 St. Helen and the sleeping room of its priest. 

 After the Dissolution the room was used for a 

 long time as the exchequer of the Dean and 

 Chapter,** and it is now the treasury. On the 

 north side of the Gatehouse was a building con- 

 taining a loft, where the children of the Almery 

 ' had diet ' at the cost of the convent. The loft 

 had a ' long porche over the stairhead, slated 

 over, and at either side of the porch or entry 

 there was a stair to go up to it and a stable under- 

 neath it.' " After the Dissolution this building 

 was converted into a dwelling-house for the first 

 prebendary of the sixth stall, when the stairs were 

 taken down and the stable made into a kitchen.*- 



The CHAMBERLAIN'S EXCHEQUER was 

 to the north-west of the Gatehouse. It was 

 rebuilt as the residence of the prebendary of the 

 first stall, and again in part by Dr. J. Bowles 

 (1712-21).'' The chamberlain 'kept a tailor 

 daily at work in a shop underneath the Ex- 

 chequer,' and at the back was a walled garden 

 called Paradise. An infirmary for lay folk with its 

 own chapel stood outside the monastery gate.*^ 



* Billings' plate (1842) shows a mutilated figure in 

 the southernmost niche. 



MRaine, Durh. Cath. 117. 



^'^ Rites, 91. MS. of 1656. The food for the 

 children was served from a window in the covey near 

 the kitchen, and carried to the loft by the gatehouse. 



1* Rites of Durh. (Hunter's 2nd ed.), 106. The loft 

 was made into a buttery. The house was partly 

 rebuilt by Richard Wrench (1660-75), being 'much 

 ruined in the Rebellion ' ; Fowler's Rites, 159. Early 

 walling remains in the basement ; ibid. 296. 



*' The existing house bears Bishop Egerton's arms 

 (1771-87), and therefore was rebuilt or repaired in his 

 time. 



^* Rites, 272. 



The church of S7. NICHOLAS 

 CHURCHES stands on the north side of the 

 market-place, but was entirely 

 rebuilt in the style of the 14th century in 1857-8. 

 It consists of a short chancel, nave with north 

 and south aisles, and tower at the west end of 

 the south aisle forming the porch, surmounted 

 by a tall stone spire. A few carved stones from 

 the old church are preserved in Durham Castle 

 and a modern ' Norman ' window inserted before 

 1857 is now at Edmundbyers. 



The building pulled down in 1857 consisted 

 of chancel, nave with north and south aisles, 

 and a tower in the same position as at present. 

 Sir Stephen Glynne, who visited the church in 

 1825, described it as ' a large structure display- 

 ing some marks of antiquity although the bar- 

 barous hand of innovation has swept nearly all 

 before it.' * 



The nave arcades consisted of pointed arches, 

 three on the north side and two of greater span 

 on the soi^th. The chancel had aisles on cither 

 side, the arcade on the north being apparently 

 of 12th-century date, but that on the south 

 was similar to the arches in the nave. Surtees 

 states that the north aisle extended ' the whole 

 length of the nave and chancel. It is divided 

 from the nave by two low octagonal pillars sup- 

 porting blunt pointed arches, and from the 

 chancel by a low round column with a fluted 

 capital supporting round arches of unequal 

 height and span. The south aisle is separated 

 from the chancel by a small pillar and pointed 

 arch, and from the nave by one slender and 

 octagonal column supporting wide pointed 

 arches.'- The chancel arch was wide and blunt, 

 springing from corbels of human heads.' At 

 the beginning of the 19th century the south 

 front of the building was almost entirely con- 

 cealed by the market-piazza. The tower had 

 been a good deal altered, and finished with a 

 straight parapet. The outward northern wall 

 (was) of great height and strength, supported 

 by square buttresses and was considered as a 

 portion of the defensive line of the city on the 

 north, sweeping exactly in line with the curtain 

 wall of Nevill's Place and Claypath Gate.* 

 There were two galleries, one for the children 

 of the Bluecoat School at the west end, erected 

 in 1 72 1 by Sir John Eden, bart., and the other 

 between two of the pillars of the north aisle, 

 erected in 1729 by the Cordwainers' Company.* 

 In 1768 the south front of the tower was chiselled 

 over and a large east window inserted in the 

 chancel, and in 1803 the interior was restored, 



1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Newcastle (3rd ser.), iii, 283. 

 * Surtees, Hist, of Dur. iv, 47. 

 3 Ibid. 47. 

 « Ibid. 48. 

 « Ibid. 48. 



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