STOCKTON WARD 



GREATHAM 



stained glass at the east end. Above the east window 

 outside is the date 1788 with a carved head over. 

 The turret has two round-headed openings east and 

 west and one to the north and south, and has a hipped 

 slated roof with good iron weather vane. An old 

 stoup is built into the south end of the east wall, and 

 the ancient altar slab is still in use. In the centre of 

 the flagged floor is a large slab of blue stone round 

 which, on a fillet of brass, is the inscription, ' + Hie 

 lacet Magister Wilelmvs de Middiltovn Sacre Pagine 

 Doctor Qvondam Cvstos Dom istivs Orate Pro Eo.' 



On the north wall is a brass with an inscription 

 in Gothic characters : * Orate pro alabus Nicholai 

 hulme lohis Kelyng et Wiiimi Estfelde clericorum 

 quonda huius hospital s magistrorum ac parentum 

 fundatorum suorum benefactorum atqz oTm fidelium 

 defiictorum quorum alabz p picief deus Amen."^ 



The interior of the chapel was restored in 1 899 

 and new oak fittings in the 18th-century style 

 inserted 



Hutchinson, writing a few years before the demo- 

 lition of the old chapel, describes the chancel as 

 entire, but the nave as much mutilated, ' nothing but 

 the cross aile remaining at the north-west and south- 

 west corners, at which you enter ; and there is a 

 short aile at each end, formed by two pillars sup- 

 porting pointed arches . . . the pillars of the south 

 aile are circular, the north octagonal.' ^ The 

 chancel alone was then used for divine service, the 

 ' outer part serving as a saloon or portico, separated by 

 a screen and stalls covered with hea\'y canopies of 

 wood-work." Over the entrance to the chancel were 

 the Royal arms dated 1696. The chapel contained a 

 ' fine recumbent effigy, delicately cut in stone,' and the 

 wooden effigy of an ecclesiastic said to have been 

 that of Andrew Stanley, the first master. Both 

 figures have disappeared.' Below the latter was 

 found a stone coffin containing a skeleton with a 

 chalice lying on the left side. 



The plate consists of a covered cup and paten of 

 1670, inscribed 'The gift of S'' Gilbert Garard to y' 

 Chappell of Gretham Hospitall for ever,' and with 

 the donor's arms ; and a flagon of German or 

 Dutch make chased on the sides with three designs 

 representing Faith, Hope and Charity, with inscrip- 

 tions in Latin.'" 



In 1 910 the hospital lodged thirteen brothers. 

 Though it was always designed as a refuge for the 

 poor, it seems in the 16th century to have been 

 used rather as a house of entertainment for gentle- 

 men. The Duke of Suffi^lk intended in 1543 to be 

 there 'with his grewhondes ' " ; and in 1569 the 

 Bishop of Durham stated that ' the last master had 

 kept a good house for gentlemen, but not so many 



poor nor so well used as the foundation requires.' " 

 Probably this state of affairs was altered after the 

 second foundation of the house in 1610." Near 

 Greatham Hall is the parish church of St. John 

 Baptist. On the north is the hospital for six poor 

 widows founded by Dormer Parkhurst in 1762. 

 Higher up the street is a Methodist chapel. 



About I 240 a toft outside the vill of Claxton ' was 

 quitclaimed to Leo de Claxton. There is now no 

 village of Claxton, and the population of the town- 

 ship lives in a few scattered farms, the chief of which 

 is Claxton Grange. The toft in question was ' on 

 the north side of the way leading to Hartlepool,' '* 

 from which it seems that the footpath leading from 

 Claxton Farm across Greatham Beck into the Hartle- 

 pool road was once itself a road. There was a 

 manor-house at Claxton in the 15th century," of 

 which no traces remain. 



The West Hartlepool branch of the North Eastern 

 railway passes through the parish, and has a station 

 half a mile to the south of the village. Adjoining 

 the station are the Greatham saltworks. The salt 

 industry is of very long standing in the parish,'* 

 though it had a period of eclipse in the 18th and 

 19th centuries. The will of Thomas Gaile, dated 

 1 58 1, mentions his sand and coal at the saltcote, 

 and his twenty-seven ' hives ' of salt." In 1650 it 

 was stated that the saltcotes had been washed away 

 or ruined by the tides, and the salt rent paid to the 

 hospital by various farms adjoining the marshes was 

 reduced to eight loads per annum.'* Certain lands 

 were burdened with rents of loads of salt, but these 

 and a rabbit warren were released in exchange for 

 land in 1663."* The remains of the saltworks were 

 still to be seen in the early 19th century. At that 

 date some of the inhabitants of the parish found 

 profitable employment in the cockle beds in the 

 mouth of the Tees. 



The common fields of Greatham were inclosed in 

 1650." 



The munoiof GREJTHJM belonged 

 MANORS to the barony of the Bertrams of 

 Mitford, Northumberland,'" and holders 

 of Stainton in the Street (q.v.). William Bertram in 

 1 196 paid 32/. for the tallage of Greatham.'"^ His son 

 and heir Roger held the vill between 1208 and 1217 

 as of his barony and died in 1242." His son Roger " 

 was a minor in the custody of the Crown in 1246, 

 when the king presented to Greatham Church in his 

 right." This Roger was a member of the Baronial 

 party and in close sympathy with Peter de Montfort, 

 one of the most prominent leaders of the movement." 

 In 1263 Roger agreed to give Agnes, his eldest 

 daughter, in marriage to one of Peter's sons, and 



* The Kelyng brass was near the altar 

 in the old chapel and the other in the 

 floor of the chancel. 



' Hutchinson, Hitt. and Antii^. of Dur. 

 iii, 91. A drum of one pillar which was 

 for some time used as a garden roller 

 now forms the support of a sundial in the 

 Vicarage garden. 



*■ Ibid. The inscriptions in the old 

 chapel are given in Surtees, op. cit. iii, 

 .38. 



* For the wooden effigy see Hutchin- 

 son, loc. cit. ; Gent. Mag. Iviii (z), 1046 

 (illustration); lix (2), 591 ; Gough, 

 Sepulchral Man. in. Gf. Brit, ii, pi. ex ; 

 Arch. Ixi, 528. 



'" Proir. Soc. Antiq. Ne-jjcaitle, iv, 18. 

 The flagon has two hall-marks under the 

 base, one of them like an anchor with a 

 bar across the centre. 



" L. and P. H,n. fill, xviii (i), 536. 



" Pefy! MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 154. 



" r.C.H. Dur. ii, 121. 



'< Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Surt. Soc), 

 z6 n. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 256 d. ; 

 Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Surt. Soc), 144. 



»« r.C.H. Dur. ii, 294. 



*' Richmond, Local Rec. 0/ Stockton, 25. 



*^ Surtees, op. cit. iii, 141. 



'"a Dur. Rec. cl. 4, no. 2. fol. 118. 



'» Ibid. 



» Curia Regis R. 128, m. 6 ; Pipe R. 

 8 Ric. I, m. 10 d. 



"'•Pipe R. 8 Ric. I, m. 10 d. 



" Arch. Ael. {.New Ser.), iii, 75 ; 

 Tiita de AVx///(Rec. Com.), 395 ; Brink- 

 burn Charrul. (Surt. Soc), 12. 



" Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rollt 

 Ser.), iv, 194; Brinkhurn Chartul. (Surt. 

 Soc), 6. 



" Curia Regis R. 128, m. 6 ; Cat. Pat. 

 1232-47, p. 480, Roger had livery a 

 month later of his father's l3nds(ibid.483). 



** Annalei Mon. (Rolls Ser.), pastim ; 

 Matthew Paris, Chron. Mat. (Rolls Ser.), 

 pasfim ; Lans. MS. 207e, fol. 285 \ Cal. 

 Pat. 1258-66, p. 316, 360. 



