A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



The ancient manor-house of Houghall is said 

 to have been built by Prior Hoton (i 290-1 308), 

 but according to the account rolls of Durham 

 Priory, a new house was built here in 1373.^' 

 In the i6th century it was occupied by the 

 family of Booth, lessees of the Dean and 

 Chapter,^^ and in the Commonwealth it is 

 said to have been occupied by the family of 

 Marshall and Sir Arthur Hazelrigg,^ though no 

 evidence of the latter occupation has been 

 found. 



The house stands in a low situation about 

 half a mile from the left bank of the Wear 

 ' guarded by a fosse supplied by a small runner 

 which falls from the hill ' — the ground rising 

 close to the building on the west and south- 

 west. The present house, which probably 

 stands on the site of one of older date, belongs 

 apparently to the first half of the 17th century, 

 and has been approached by an avenue of trees 

 from High Houghall on the south side, part of 

 which remains. The building itself has been 

 very much modernised, and is now a farm- 

 house. It faces south, and has a wing at the 

 east end running north, in which are two four- 

 light mulhoned and transomed windows and 

 a smaller mullioned opening of three lights 

 in the north gable. The house is of two stories, 

 with basement and attics, and the roofs are 

 covered with modern blue slates. On the south 

 front all the windows, with one exception, 

 are modern, and over the doorway is a shield 

 with the arms of Marshall of Selaby (a cheveron 

 between three crescents), who occupied the 

 house during the Commonwealth period.*'' 

 The interior is without interest, except for 

 the staircase, which is built round a small 

 central square well, and has thick turned 

 balusters and square newels with balls. The 

 building has been extended on the west side, 

 the old part being, perhaps, only a fragment. 



The modern settlement of Houghall lies 

 north of the old house, and owes its existence 

 to the coalmine that was once sunk here, but 

 is now disused. A hospital for infectious 

 diseases'* has been built among the fields here, 

 and was opened in 1893. The name of 

 Hollinside Wood, west of Houghall, must be 

 connected with the close called Holensfeld in 

 1551,^'' and Hollingside itself is mentioned in 



32 Dur. Acct. R. (Surt. Soc), iii, 578. 



33 See below. 



3* Hutchinson, Dur. ii, 325 ; Mackenzie and Ross, 

 DuT. ii, 435. According to tradition Oliver Crom- 

 well lived here for some time. 



3* Surtees, Dur. iv, 94. 



3* In 1597 patients suffering from the plague were 

 sent ' to a lodge built without the . . . citie ' (Dur. 

 Rec. cl. 2, no. l). 



S' Rec. of the D. and C. of Dur. Reg. A. (no. 1), 

 fol. 201 d. 



1 65 1, together with lands called Award Flatt, 

 the Pooles and Weather Haugh.33 



West of Houghall is Elvet Moor,3» inclosed 

 in 1772.'"' Oswald House, as Mount St. Oswald 

 was then called, was built on part of the moor 

 by the family of Wilkinson.''* The house was 

 rebuilt shortly before 1834, when the name 

 was changed ;*- it is now the residence 

 of Mrs. Rogerson, widow of John Edwin 

 Rogerson, M.F.H. 



Shincliffe is on the left bank of the Wear, 

 and on the ridge between the river and the 

 Whitwell Beck ; it is reached by the road 

 leading south-east from Philipson's Cross. The 

 old village is built along a wide lane running 

 down towards the river, the main road to Sedge- 

 field making a sharp angle to pass down the 

 village street. In 1824 it was said that a garden 

 lay nearly all round the village,''3 but this has 

 now disappeared. The church of St. Mary 

 lies a little back from the road, and near it is 

 the Wesleyan chapel, built in 1874. Wesley 

 himself preached at Shincliffe in May 1780, when 

 stopping at Mr. Parker's."-* The congregation 

 being far too large to get into the house, Wesley 

 stood near the door, and it ' seemed as if the 

 whole village was ready to receive the truth.'"'' 

 There is also a United Methodist chapel, 

 built in 1875, at the colliery settlement on 

 Bank Top. This colliery is now closed down, 

 and many of the houses are deserted, though a 

 certain number are utilised as Aged Miners' 

 Homes. The grange of Durham Priory lay 

 at the top of the hill, and to the south are the 

 race course, opened in 1895,** and Shincliffe 

 station, on the Newcastle, Leamside and Ferry- 

 hill branch of the North Eastern Railway. 

 This station was opened in 1844, and took the 

 place of an earlier station opened in 1839 

 on the Durham and Sunderland Railway."' 

 All the land to the north of the old village lay 

 in the park of the Priory of Durham ; which is 

 first mentioned in the 13th century,"* and was 

 inclosed in 1355-6."' The park ran down to 

 the river and bordered the main road near 

 Shincliffe Bridge, for when Prior Richard 



38 Close R. 1 65 1, pt. Ixi, no. 39. 



3* For the boundary between Elvet and Houghall 

 see Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Surt. Soc), 203 n. 



"« Rec. of the D. and C. of Dur. Reg. L.L. no. 52. 



"1 See Grange, Gen. I'iew of the Agric. of Co. Dur. 

 (Bd. of Agric. 794), 44. 



42 View of the City of Dur. (i 81 3), 67 ; Allan, op. cit. 

 103. 



"3 Allan, op. cit. 107. 



*» Wesley, ^oMrn. 31 May 1 780. 



"6 Ibid. 



"8 V.C.H. Dur. ii, 420. 



"' Inform, supplied by the L. and N.E.R. 



"8 Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 57. 



"» Dur. Acct. R. (Surt. Soc), 122. 



156 



