A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



will of Richard Thady of Burntoft, i6 September 

 1558, who left money to 'St. Thomas of Elwick."-' 

 This is a late date for a chantry to be mentioned, 

 but Thady 's will is markedly Romanist in character, 

 and, living in Mary's reign, he may have hoped that 

 the chantries would be restored. 



Miss Elizabeth Allison, by her 



CHARITIES will proved at Durham in 1862, 



devised to trustees in perpetuity a 



close called 'Edgemirc' containing j a. 2 r. 16 p. 

 and a close called 'Little Edgemire' containing 

 I acre. By a deed of trust, dated I 1 M.irch 1868, 

 the rent of Edgemire, amounting 10 £1^ 5/. yearly, 

 is made applicable in aid of the restoration of the 

 parish church and the upkeep of the churchyard, and 

 the rent of Little Edgemire, amounting to £z i 5/., 

 for the general purposes of the Church of England 

 school.30 



GREATHAM 



Gretham (to xv cent.). 



The parish of Greatham, which includes the town- 

 ships of Greatham and Claxton, covers 2,482 acres 

 on the north bank of the Tees estuary. In the south 

 and east of the parish, where the Greatham Creek joins 

 the Tees, the ground is low and alluvial. It gradually 

 rises, however, to about 100 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum in the north-west of the township of Claxton, 

 and most of the parish is gravel on a subsoil of 

 Keuper marls. It is watered by two streams, Claxton 

 and Greatham Becks, both flowing south into 

 Greatham Creek, which forms the southern 

 boundary. About 1,100 acres are under cultiva- 

 tion, the chief crops being wheat, oats, potatoes and 

 turnips.' 



The village of Greatham, on the east bank of 

 Greatham Beck, has a main street running south from 

 the high road between Wolviston and West Hartlepool. 

 In the 15th century an attempt was made to convert 

 it into a market town. Henry VI granted a Wednes- 

 day market in 1444 to the Master and Brethren of 

 Greatham Hospital, with fairs on the vigils and feasts 

 of St. George and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 

 and the two days following (22 to 25 April and 

 13 to 16 September).- These markets and fairs are 

 not again mentioned, and evidently did not prosper. 

 A yearly ' feast ' is held, however, on St. John Baptist's 

 Day (24 June), and is known as 'Greatham Mid- 

 summer.' 



The hospital of Greatham stands on the west side 

 of the village street. The buildings date only from 

 1803-4, when they were reconstructed by John 

 William Egerton, Earl of Bridgwater, the master.' 

 Architecturally of little or no merit, being in the 

 pseudo-Gothic style of the day from a design by 

 Wyatt, they nevertheless possess a certain picturesque- 

 ness due in a large measure, no doubt, to their pleasant 

 surroundings. The buildings are of a single story 

 and face the south, with a wide centrally placed 

 entrance porch of three pointed arches, above which, 

 flanked by embattled parapets, rises a square clock 

 tower, surmounted by an octagonal lantern or bell- 

 turret. The walls are of stone and have been stuccoed. 



Over the entrance is a stone with the following 

 inscription*^ : — 



IN FRATRVM HVIVS HOSPITII VSVM 



NON SINE GRATA PATRIS SVI 



NVPER EPISCOPl DVNELMENSIS 



MEMORIA 



IMPENSIS lOHANNIS GVLIELMI EGERTON 



COMITIS DE BRIDGEWATER 



MAGISTRI 



ANNO DOMINI MDCCCIV 



REPARATVM . ORNATVM . AMPLIFICATVM 



In the middle of the building is a large hall, round 

 which the rooms of the brethren are arranged on tlirce 

 sides. Surtees, writing about twenty years after the 

 erection of the present buildings, says : ' It is not 

 easy to form any opinion as to the appearance of the 

 original buildings of the Hospital ; they seem to have 

 stood on a plot of ground, which now forms a lawn in 

 front of the present structure. Two lines of ancient 

 trees, skirting the ground and sheltering it on two 

 sides, exactly mark out the site.'* In 1724 the 

 whole of the hospital buildings, as well the Master's 

 house as the lodgings of the Brethren, were ex- 

 tremely ruinous and dilapidated, propped in some 

 places on the outside by large pieces of timber.' The 

 master's house, known as Greatham Hall, a plain 

 stone building of three stories, to the south-west of 

 the hospital, was built in the following year by 

 Dormer Parkhurst, master. It was stuccoed about 

 1820 and additions were made in 1857. The 

 chapel stands directly to the west of the parish church 

 and to the south-east of the master's house. Having 

 become ruinous, the old building was taken down in 

 1788 and the present structure erected on the old 

 foundations except on the north side. In plan it is a 

 plain rectangle measuring internally 36 ft. 6 in. by 

 24 ft. 6 in., with a bell-turret at the west end forming 

 a small porch 5 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in., approached by a 

 flight of steps. The roof is slated, and finishes on a 

 moulded corbel table which is carried along the end 

 gables. There are three round-headed sash windows 

 on each side, and a similar window now filled with 



" Dur. ffills and Invent. (Suit. Soc), 



'. «77- 



•o y.C.H. Dur. i, 406. 



' Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (190;). 



» Chart. R. 21-4 Hen. VI, no. 30. 



^ The foundation stone was laid 15 Sep- 

 tember 1803. 



*3 Over the north door of the hospital 



is this inscription : Fund. MCCLXXII ; 

 Refund. MDCX ; Rcaedificatum 



MDCCCXIX. 



* Surtees, Hiir. and Aniij. of Dur. iii, 

 135. He adds, 'the habitation occupied 

 by the poor brethren, before the late 

 alterations, appeared to have been the 

 nave of tlie church, with corresponding 



242 



arches closed up on the north and south, 

 and a porch added for a common entrance 

 in the centre.' 



' Return to a mandate issued by Bishop 

 Talbot. Quoted by Surtees, op. cit. iii, 

 136. There is a drawing of the hospital 

 made in 1778 (pub. 1785) in Grose, 

 Antiq, of Engl, viii, 62. 



