CITY OF DURHAM 



divided between the coheirs, Alan de Marton 

 and Margaret, his wife, having the chamber 

 on the east of the great hall, while that on the 

 west was assigned to Richard and Emma de 

 Aldwood." 



South of Broom Hall the land falls towards 

 the River Deerness, which divides St. Oswald's 

 from the parish of Brancepeth. From the ford 

 at Langley Bridge southward the River Browney 

 forms the parish boundary, with a few unim- 

 portant deviations, until that stream joins 

 the Wear. The Browney winds considerably, 

 its last and largest bend enclosing Burn Hall 

 on all but its eastern side. The present house 

 was the residence of the late Mr. Henry Salvin, 

 and was sold in 1926, two years after his death, 

 to St. Joseph's Society for Foreign Missions, 

 who have established a boys' school there. It was 

 built in 1825I* on higher ground about 300 yds. 

 from the older house where Elizabeth Barrett 

 Browning was born in 1809.'* It is not certain 

 whether this house was identical with the 

 house having a great chamber hung with red and 

 green, owned by William Claxton at his death in 

 c. 1566.^" South-east of Burn Hall and just 

 without the limits of the park is Herd's House, 

 mentioned as ' Hurdhous ' in 1589.^1 Low 

 Burnhall lies close to the Wear ; it is now occu- 

 pied as a farm. In 1430 there was a hermitage 

 at Burn,^'^ near the quarry of the lord of the 

 manor, but its exact position has now been lost. 



The north road skirts the park of Burn Hall 

 on the east and, after crossing Browney Bridge 

 and some low-lying land, reaches Sunderland 

 Bridge over the Wear. This bridge is men- 

 tioned in 1346, a skirmish being fought here 

 in the morning of 17 October before the battle 

 was joined at Neville's Cross.-^ Leland rode 

 by ' Sunderland Bridges ' when he came to 

 Durham in or about 1536. 'There,' he says, 

 * Wear is divided into two arms and after shortly 

 meeting maketh an isle ; the first bridge as I came 

 over was but of one arch, the other of three.' -* 

 In 1578 it was said that the Wear had changed 

 its course, and that unless something was done 

 it would ' leave the saide brydge upon drye 

 land upon the southe syde of the said water.' -* 

 The bridge was partly rebuilt in 1769.^* 



The villages of Sunderland Bridge and of 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 30, m. 12 d. 



1' Allan, Hist, and Desc. View of the City of Dur. 

 (1824), 103-4; Hutchinson, Dur. ii, 331. 



" Diet. Nat. Biog. 



^'^ Wills and Invent. (Surt. Soc), i, 254. 



^^ Dur. Rec. cl. 3, file 192, no. 140. 



22 Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Sun. Soc), App. 

 p. ccxix. 



^ Surtees, Dur. iv (2), 123. 



'^^ Leland, Itin. (ed. cit.). 



2* Exch. Spec. Com., Dur., no. 754. 



"* Mackenzie and Ross, Dur. ii, 438. 



Croxdale form practically one settlement," 

 though the name Croxdale is now confined 

 to the railway station and to the hamlet south 

 of the London and North Eastern main line. 

 The colliery led to the opening of a Primitive 

 Methodist chapel here in 1877, and of a 

 Wesleyan chapel (1897) and a reading room. 

 The village of Sunderland Bridge lies on the 

 ridge of a steep hiU above the Wear and is 

 built along a short lane at right angles to the 

 highway, the church of St. Bartholomew lying 

 at the corner. In less than a quarter of a mile 

 the village street turns abruptly south, to 

 Hctt, its eastern course being stopped by the 

 deep and wooded heugh which encloses the 

 South Park of Croxdale Hall, the main approach 

 to which is through a strip of park lying between 

 the village and the Wear. Croxdale Hall ha s been 

 in the possession of the Salvins since the 15th 

 century, and is now the residence of Lieut. -Col. 

 Herman C. J. Salvin. Lady Oxford in 1745 

 thought it ' a very pretty place by the Wear 

 side, with good gardens,' and added that these 

 were ' remarkable for early fruit.'-' Neither the 

 house nor its chapel of St. Herbert is of any 

 great antiquity, but close by is the ancient 

 parochial chapel. This chapel is retained by 

 the Salvins, who gave in exchange the land on 

 which the present church of St. Bartholomew 

 is built. North of Croxdale Hall and beyond 

 a further stretch of park is Croxdale Wood, 

 on the edge of which is Croxdale Wood House, 

 the residence of Mr. Lewis Ingham. The 

 high ground about the house slopes rapidly 

 down to the Wear, and to a tract of low-lying 

 ground within a loop of the stream. The old 

 manor-house of Butterby lies close to the river 

 side. There is no church at Butterby,-' hence 

 in the local slang a man is said ' to go to church 

 at Butterby ' when he neglects to attend church. 

 Despite the isolated position of Butterby, 

 shut in by river and hj wood, it was much 

 frequented in the i8th century by patients 

 who came to drink of the ' vitrioline spaw.' 

 These medical waters were described by Dr. 

 Wilson in 1675,'" but the spring has now been 

 lost in consequence of mining operations in the 

 neighbourhood. 



A ford across the Wear gives access to a bridle 

 road which leads across the old Highfield,'^ 

 now the golf links, to Houghall and thence to 

 Durham. 



" According to Surtees the vill of Sunderland 

 Bridge had its separate common fields which were 

 inclosed in 1669 {Dur. iv (2), 122). 



28 Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vi, 185. 



29 The fact that Butterby is tithe free led Hutchin- 

 son to consider it the site of St. Leonards {Dur. ii, 

 J 1 6), but for this see above. 



^ Spadacrene Dunelmensis. 



" Cf. Dur. Rec. cl. 2, bdle. 95. 



155 



