A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



of Durham had their park. Long before 1840 

 the land was inclosed and farmholds created,'* 

 but as late as 1848 an appointment was made to 

 the sinecure office of parker or keeper of the park 

 of Frankland near Durham with Middlewood and 

 Ryton.8o 



The North Eastern Railway line separates 

 Frankland Park from Newton Hall. There was 

 a capital messuage here in 1465." Newton Hall, 

 which was pulled down in 1926, stood on high 

 ground about a mile and a half to the north of 

 Durham, and was a dignified Georgian house of 

 two stories and an attic, built of brick with stone 

 dressings. The date 1751 which occurred on 

 the spout heads apparently indicated the year 

 of its erection. The front faced west and was 

 about 90 ft. in length, the middle part being 

 emphasised by four Ionic pilasters supporting 

 an entablature above the second story, the 

 swelled frieze of which was richly carved. The 

 windows had all stone architraves and keystones 

 and retained their barred sashes. The house 

 was L shaped on plan, the shorter wing facing 

 south on to a large garden inclosed by brick 

 walls. The stables and outbuildings were on 

 the north side ranged round a courtyard. The 

 house fell into a state of semi-dilapidation ; it 

 was used fo barracks during the Great War and 

 afterwards demolished. 



Between Newton Hall*- and the main north 

 road is the Framwellgate Colliery, in connexion 

 with which modern hamlets have sprung into 

 being at Framwellgate Moor just north of Dry- 

 burn and at Pity Me further along the road. 

 Pity Me, the more northerly of these hamlets, 

 is said to take its name from the mediaeval ' Petit 

 Mere,' and there is still a large pond and a 

 marshy tract south of the settlement. Framwell- 

 gate Moor is of more importance and boasts the 

 church of St. Cuthbert, opened in 1862, and 

 chapels of the Wesleyan, United and Primitive 

 Methodist bodies, the last two opened respec- 

 tively in 1869 and 1870, as well as a public ele- 

 mentary school. The land on which this colony 

 has sprung was originally part of the Cater House 

 estate, the farm known by that name lying 

 immediately north-west of the village. Cater 

 House was described in 1857 as * an ancient 

 single tenement shaded by a row of tall syca- 

 mores '^ and an extent of 1597 makes mention 



" Surtees, Dur. iv (z), 147. 



^ Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 134, no. 13, cf. 132, no. 

 45. In the 19th century the parker was a clerk in 

 Holy Orders. 



*^ Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 4, fol. 22. 



*2 There was a vill of Newton here in the 12th 

 century, and a story is told of how a shepherdess of 

 Newton heard supernatural music one day when 

 setting out with her sheep {Libellus de Vita et 

 Miraculis S. Godrici [Surt. Soc], 244, 33 1, cf. 254). 



88 Fordyce, Dur. i, 386. 



of a kitchen and cowhouse and closes called 

 Benterstills, Maggfield and Well close.** In the 

 16th century the land north of Cater House was 

 largely uninclosed moor and Cater House itself 

 was only a part of the holding of Hag House, 

 north-east of Pity Me. ^ 



North-east of Hag House are the Finchale 

 and Redhouse Woods, running down to the 

 Wear. Beyond the woods the river makes a bend 

 from north-west to south-east, and in the corner 

 thus created stand the ruins of Finchale Priory. 

 In the 1 2th century all P'ramwellgate Moor 

 was a hunting ground for the Bishops of Durham 

 and Finchale was little more than a thicket of 

 undergrowth. The banks of the Wear are still 

 heavily wooded on either side. 



Few traces of the Benedictine priory of 

 Finchale remain. It was founded in 1 196 on the 

 site of the hermitage of St. Godric, who, after a 

 chequered career, settled about 1 1 10 in the valley 

 of the Wear a mile above Finchale.** Some five 

 years later the Saint moved to the site of 

 the present ruins, where in his hermitage he 

 died in 11 70.*' Here he built the little chapel 

 of St. Mary, of timber and brushwood, and 

 adjoining it the house in which he lived.** 

 As his sanctity became known a larger chapel 

 of stone, dedicated to the honour of St. John 

 Baptist, was built by the faithful for his use, 

 the two chapels being connected by a covered 

 way of branches and thatch. On the south 

 side of St. John's Chapel were two wooden huts 

 for his food and other possessions.*' After 

 Godric's death his hermitage was acquired by 

 the priory of Durham, and in 1196 Bishop 

 Pudsey established there a small priory as a cell 

 of Durham, which was later increased in size. 



All that remains of St. Godric's hermitage 

 are the foundations of the chapel of St. John 

 Baptist, which were recently found within 

 the presbytery of the 13th-century church. 

 The chapel was a small rectangular building, 



** Dur. Rec. cl. 3, file 192, no. 41 ; cf. file 188, 

 no. 38. 



** See below. 



** Priory of FinchaU (Surtees Soc), pref. xiii. 



*' I'.C.H. Dur. i, 103. 



** \ wooden building, described as the house 

 of the Blessed Godric, was newly made by the monks 

 in 1490-1, but its site is now unknown {Priory of 

 FinchaU [Surt. Soc], pp. cccxc, cccxd). 



** Arch. Aeliana (ser. iv), vol. iv, p. 193 et seq. 

 Paper by C. R. Peers from which by kind permission of 

 the author and the Soc of Antiq. of Newcastle much 

 of this account of Finchale Priory has been taken. 

 The plan was prepared for that paper and is repro- 

 duced here by permission of Mr. Peers and the 

 Society. The details of the life of St. Godric and 

 the buildings forming his hermitage are taken from 

 Libellus de Vita S. Godrici (Surt. Soc), passim (see 

 index under ' Finchale '). 



148 



