CITY OF DURHAM 



^HS Cent. 

 ^152! Cent. 

 ED Modern 



K) 



Ralph Flambard in 1112.^ The earliest hospital 

 stood near the church' which served as its 

 chapel, but the site proved unsuitable, and at some 

 time in the latter half of the 12th century the 

 house was removed to Kepier by the river bank, 

 north of the main road. The position of the 

 earlier settlement by the church is still marked 

 by the existence of the back lane that now serves 

 as an approach to the Diocesan training college 

 for women teachers. Just south of the church was 

 the holy well, the well house of which was newly 

 decorated with a cross in 1755.* 



Houses gradually grew up between this hamlet 

 and the city and these were afterwards erected 

 into a mesne borough under the master of St. 

 Giles. ^ The western boundary of the parish was 

 marked by a leaden cross standing in the middle 

 of the street until at 

 least 1754 ; * irom this 

 point the boundary fol- 

 lowed Tinkler's Lane 

 southward to the Wear. 

 A certain amount of 

 meadow land still re- 

 mains here, traces of 

 those fields that in 

 the 17th century were 

 subject to rights of 

 common.' Further east 

 a large close belonged 



to the Cordwainers' Company and was still 

 unbuilt upon in 1754.* Bede College, for training 

 masters for elementary schools, stands on what 

 was Felloe Leazes, the modern curved road fol- 

 lowing the line of the ancient hedge. 



In 1754 there were not many houses on the 

 north side of Gilligate' and the ground in front 

 of the North Eastern Railway goods station was 

 still fields. The modern approach to the 

 station represents the old lane to the hospital of 

 St. Mary Magdalene, founded here in the 13th 

 century. 1" The hospital stood near the river, the 

 ruins of its chapel being enclosed within a garden. 

 The building was in plan a plain rectangle, 

 measuring internally 43 ft. by 16 ft. 6 in., with 

 walls 3 ft. thick, constructed of yellow sandstone 

 in coursed blocks and with chamfered plinth. It 

 has long been roofless and the upper part of the 

 walling is broken, the height of the side walls being 

 from 5 ft. to 9 ft. An earlier chapel which stood a 



2 F.C.H.Dur. ii. III. 



' Simeon of Dur. Hist. Cont. (Rolls Ser.), 1 5 1-9. 



* Mem. of St. Giles (Surt. Soc), iii and n. 



* See above, under Durham City. 



' Forster, Map of Dur. It is marked on the maps of 

 the 17th century. 



' Mem. of St. Giles (Surt. Soc), 1-2, 40 n. 



* Forster, op. cit. This was also subject to common 

 rights {Mem. 0/ St. Giles [Surt. Soc], 99 and n.). 



' Forster, op. cit. 



^° r.C.H. Dur. ii, 119. 



Scale of Feet 



Durham Citi' : Plan of St. Mary Magdalene's Chapel 



little to the east of the present one was practically 

 rebuilt in 1370,^* but in 1448 it was found to be 

 in so ruinous a condition from the weakness of 

 its foundations that the Prior and Convent 

 obtained a licence from Bishop Nevill in Feb- 

 ruary 1449 to puU it down and remove it to 

 another site within the territory of the hospital.^ 

 The existing ruins are all there is left of the 

 building then erected, which was consecrated 

 on 16 May 145 1.*' Portions of the older chapel 

 were reused in the new building, the east window 

 being a pointed 14th-century opening of three 

 trefoiled lights and geometrical tracery,*'* pro- 

 bably part of the work of 1370. A 13th-century 

 gable cross, discovered on the site of the first 

 chapel, is now in the cathedral library.*^ The 

 ancient churchyard, then unfenced and overrun 



with weeds, was con- 

 verted into a garden 

 in 1822.1* Only the 

 jambs and head of the 

 east window are now 

 standing, and there 

 are remains of win- 

 dows in the north 

 and south walls, but 

 the masonry is very 

 much broken, and ex- 

 amination is rendered 

 difficult by the cover- 

 ing of ivy and the presence of a greenhouse 

 within the walls, which takes up a large portion 

 of the inner space towards the east end. 

 At the extreme west end of the side walls 

 are north and south doorways, the walls 

 themselves being strengthened at the angles 

 by boldly projecting buttresses westward. The 

 south doorway is now built up and the head 

 gone, but that on the north has a round-headed 

 arch in two stones, chamfered joints and hood 

 mould and an inner segmented head. ' Within 

 the ruin there is at least one arch stone with a 

 roll-moulding on each angle and the base of an 

 early English font of Frosterley marble.'" 



Immediately to the north of Magdalene Place 

 is the site of Kepier Hospital, of which there 

 remains only the gatehouse, a picturesque 

 structure in a state of partial decay facing west 

 to the river. The gateway has a late pointed 

 arch on either side and one midway between, 



^ Trans. Dur. and North, .-irch. Soc. ii, 140-6. The 

 extent of the repairs is shown by quotations from the 

 almoner's accounts. 



12 Ibid. 



13 Ibid. The almoner's accounts, 1449-51, give many 

 items for the building of the present chapel. 



1* It is shown in Billings' Antiq. oj Dur. plate I. 

 It was then apparently intact except for one mullion. 

 1* Trans. Dur. and North. Arch. Soc. ii, 140. 

 " Fordyce, Hist, of Dur. i, 378. 

 1' Pro. Soc. Ant. (Newc), 1889, iv, 139. 



183 



