CITY OF DURHAM 



occupied by the patients had not been long 

 vacant,^^ there is reason to suppose that the 

 14 acres*- known as Spittleflat were granted out 

 by the bishop at a much earlier date. Land in 

 the neighbourhood of Framwellgate was devised 

 by John Bille to Maud his daughter in 1346'^ and 

 she inherited the rest of his land on his death in 

 or about January 1356-7." Maud married as 

 her first husband one of the Yorkshiie family of 

 Thwing and had by him a son John on whom 

 she settled lands in Durham and Whitton Gil- 

 bert in 1374.^ ^^^ second husband, William 

 Jalker, had died in the previous year^ and Maud's 

 settlement provided for the contingent remainder 

 of her lands to William and John Jalker, her 

 younger sons." John de Thwing died in pos- 

 session of the 14 acres called Spittalflat in or 

 about 1394** and William Jalker succeeded him. 

 The land passed by marriage to Agnes wife of 

 William Billingham and was acquired by Robert 

 Jackson before 1437.*' He then conveyed Spittle- 

 flat to trustees, and there is no evidence that it 

 descended to his kinsman and heir John Rassh.**" 

 In 1563 Christina Rawlinge died in possession, 

 her heirs being her daughters, Alice wife of 

 Robert Farters and Ehzabeth wiie of William 

 Heighington.^i Its history in the 17th and i8th 

 centuries is obscure, but in 1840 it was the 

 property of Mr. Francis Johnson.*'- 



Just south of Spittleflat is Chapelflat, where 

 the church of St. Cuthbert now stands.*^ 

 Here once stood the chapel of St. Leonard, its 

 position, long conjectural, being established by 

 the map of 1595** and by the fact that the close 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 13, fol. 454. 



'^ In 1563 it was said to contain only 10 acres 

 (ibid. no. 6, fol. 7 d.) in one place, but 14 acres in 

 another (ibid. fol. 28). In 1840 it contained only 

 2 acres (Surtees, Dur. iv (2), 137 n.). 



*3 Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 11, no. 78. 



^ Ibid. no. 2, fol. 55. 



^* Ibid. no. II, no. 50. 



** Ibid. no. 2, fol. 90 d. 



" Ibid. no. II, no. 50. 



'* Ibid. no. 2, fol. 120. Spittalflat was said to con- 

 tain 16 acres in Hatfield's Surv. (Surt. Soc), 85. 



^* Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 304 d. 



«> Ibid. 



*i Ibid. no. 6, fol. 7 d. See Dryburn, below. 



^ Surtees, Dur. iv (2), 137. 



*' Reg. of St. Margaret's, Dur. (Dur. and North. 

 Par. Reg. Soc), p. v. In 1597 Edward Hudspethe 

 of Durham left ' Chaple Close ' and the little close 

 called Paradise to his wife Alice for life, with remainder 

 to his sons Thomas, Christopher, and John. {Dur. 

 Wills and Invent. [Surt. Soc], iii, 163). 



*^ Christopher Schwytzer, Dunelm. (1595). St. 

 Leonards is the name given to the whole enclosure 

 and includes both hospital and chapel. The free 

 chapel of St. Leonard in St. Margaret's p.irish was 

 granted in 1572 to Percival Gunston of Aske 

 together with the ch.ipel of St. Bartholomew in the 

 same parish (Pat. 14 Eliz. pt. i, m 13). In 1628 a 



was long used as a burial place for the criminals 

 executed at Gibbet-Knowle hard by.** 



Gibbet- Knowle, so called in 1397,'" was copy- 

 hold land and was held in 15 15 by John, Lord 

 Lumley.*' Gallowsflat was probably also in 

 this neighbourhood ; it was exchequer land and 

 was held with three acres called Sourmilkden.** 

 Dryburn is immediately north of Gibbet-Knowle, 

 and in the i6th century executions are usually 

 said to have been carried out there. It was 

 not only the ordinary criminal who suffered 

 here, for in May 1590 four men — Duke, HyU, 

 Hogge and Holyday — were hanged and quar- 

 tered here as ' semynaryes, Papysts, Tretors 

 and rebels to hyr Magestye.'*' 



The name Dryburn is now confined to the 

 residence of Mrs. Charles Waring Darwin. On 

 the east side of the main road and almost opposite 

 Dryburn is Aykley Heads, the property of Capt. 

 C. F. Dixon-Johnson.™ The estate once formed 

 part of the manor of Crook Hall,'i within its 

 bounds being the spring whence the city ob- 

 tained its first water supply by grant of Thomas 

 Billingham in 1450.'- The meadow whence it 

 sprang was called the Framwell meadowes or 

 Conduit heads until at least 1676," when water- 

 courses in the meadows belonged to the two 

 ancient water corn-mills at Crook Hall.'* 



Crook Hall itself is reached by following the 

 more easterly road'* that branches from the top 

 of Framwellgate. The Rev. James Raine, anti- 

 quary and topographer, lived here, and here he 

 died in 1858."" The old quarry to the west of the 

 house was being worked in the late 17th cen- 

 tury" and in 1748 mention is made of the Crow 

 Orchard, Dovecoat Flats, Dog Close and 

 Marlin's Field. '^ The shafts of the Durham 

 Main Colliery have now been sunk in the fields 

 north of the house, but a tract of woodland 

 still remains, and by its name of Hopper's Wood 

 commemorates an 18th-century owner. 



From the road by Crook Hall footpaths lead 

 across the fields to Frankland, where the Bishops 



chapel in decay, lying near Framwellgate, probably 

 that of St. Leonard, was granted to Ralph Wise and 

 Henry Harryman (Pat. 4 Chas. I, pt. xxv, no. 2). 



** Surtees, Dur. iv (2), 137. 



*' Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 13, fol. 257b. 



«' Ibid. no. 21, fol. 188 d. 



^ Ibid. no. 13, fol. 491 ; 14, fol. 786 d., 863. 



*' Mackenzie and Ross, Dur. ii, 400 n. 



'" Surtees, Dur. i; (2), 141. 



'* See below. 



'- Mackenzie and Ross, op. cit. ii, 438. In 1834 

 the original masonry of the fountain was still in 

 existence. 



'* Dur. Rec. cl. 4, no. 3, fol. 408. 



'■• For these see fVills and Invent. (Surt. Soc), ii, 

 277; Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 121, m. 43. 



'* ? Sidgate. '« Diet. Nat. Biog. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 4, no. 3, fol. 408. 



'* Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 121, m. 43. 



H7 



