A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



plantations, 23.' The plantations are chiefly placed 

 along the northern border. The soil is clay. The 

 cereals grown are wheat, barley and oats ; beans and 

 turnips are also grown. At Fighting Cocks there 

 are ironworks ; also the gasworks for Middleton 

 and Dinsdale. The surface is chiefly an undulating 

 tableland between 100 ft. and 14.0 ft. above ordnance 

 datum, sloping steeply to the river, except in the 

 south-east corner, where there is some low-lying 

 land.- Here stands Lower Middleton Hall, close 

 to the left bank of the Tees. It is an old three- 

 storied building with red brick front having barred 

 sash windows. The front appears to have been 

 erected in I 72 1, the heads of the lead spouts bear- 

 ing that date along with the initials r'^i (R[obert] 

 and I. Killinghall). Not far from the house is an 

 octagonal pigeon-house of red brick with pantiled 

 roof containing over 1,500 cells.' The site is prob- 

 ably an ancient one. On the lawn in front of the 

 house is a 13th-century cross of red sandstone set up 

 with the lower end of the shaft in the earth. The 

 design is in the shape of a large quatrefoil with 

 spreading arms, the upper one of which is missing. 

 On the north side is a representation of the Cruci- 

 fixion with the figures of St. Mary and St. John, 

 and on the south our Lord seated in majesty, with 

 the evangelistic symbols on the arms.* 



To the north of the hall is the old parish church, 

 in a lonely situation on the verge of the higher land. 

 Over a mile westward is the village of Middleton 

 One Row,' standing along the edge of the cliff" over- 

 looking the river. Here is a United Methodist 

 chapel. This village is resorted to by visitors to the 

 Dinsdale Spa, and cont.iins the Ropner Convalescent 

 Home, originally founded about 1894. To the 

 west of it is the Tower Hill, the site of an ancient 

 earthwork of the mount and bailey type.^ To the 

 north is the hamlet of Fighting Cocks, partly in 

 Dinsdale, which contains a Wesleyan chapel and an 

 undenominational mission hall. To the east of it, 

 occupying the north end of the parish on both sides 

 of the brook formerly known as Hart Burn, are West 

 Hartburn, Goosepool and Oak Tree ; this last takes 

 its name from a public-house. Between these and 

 the village named is Middleton St. George Hall. 



At the extreme west of the parish there is a ford 

 across the Tees into Over Dinsdale. Here stood 

 Ponteyse, the bridge of Tees ; it has long been 

 destroyed, but in 1823 the foundations could still 

 be discerned.' County Lane, the road from the 

 bridge, led north below Tower Hill, and appears to 

 be part of an ancient Roman road. Pieces of land 

 near the bridge called County Flat and County Acre 

 belonged to the manor of Traftbrd.* There is another 

 ford near Low Middleton, and a ferry close bv. 

 The principal road on which the village stands turns 



north to Fighting Cocks, where it divides ; one branch 

 goes on along the old Roman road to Sadberge and the 

 other turns west to Darlington. There are also 

 eastern branches to Stockton and to Long Newton. 

 From the village a road goes east and south past the 

 church to Low Middleton and Newsham. The 

 Stockton and Darlington railway runs west across 

 the centre of the parish, having a station about a 

 mile north of the village ; this is named Dinsdale. 

 There is a mineral line branching ofi^ to Darling- 

 ton. 



Hartburn is mentioned in Reginald's account of 

 the miracles of St. Cuthbcrt. In King Stephen's 

 time William the Sergeant had a house there, and 

 fled thence to Sadberge churchyard to escape a raid by 

 Roger Pavie, the constable of Thirsk, but he was 

 captured and imprisoned. St. Cuthbert threatened 

 the captor and struck him with disease, and on the 

 return of Robert de Eivil, master of the castle, 

 William was set at liberty.' 



Sir William Walworth, famous for the killing of 

 Wat Tyler in 1 381, was once a partner in the 

 manor, but it is not known that he was a native ; 

 he was Lord Mayor of London in 1374 and 1380, 

 and died in 1381.'" Three men of Middleton 

 St. George joined the rising of 1569, and one of 

 them was executed, as was also the man from Middle- 

 ton One Row who joined it.^' The Protestation of 

 1641 was signed in the p.irish,'^ but the chief land- 

 owners appear to have been Royalists and had to 

 compound for their estates under the Common- 

 wealth. 



The township's affairs are administered by a parish 

 council. 



The first occurrence of MIDDLE- 

 MANORS TON is in the return of 1 1 66, when it 

 was held in two moieties by William 

 son of Siward, who stated in that year that he held 

 one knight's fee in Gosforth and the moiety of 

 'Milleton' or ' Mileton.' *' Gosforth by itself was 

 later stated to be held as two-thirds of a knight's 

 fee, so that the service for Middleton would be the 

 remaining third.''' This estate, which was called 

 OrER MIDDLETON or MIDDLETON ONE 

 ROPf, descended with the adjoining Dinsdale (q.v.) 

 in the Surtees family until the partition made in 1552, 

 when Marmaduke son and heir of Thomas Surtees, of 

 the half-blood, received it and held it until his death 

 in 1573.^' His son John recorded a pedigree in 

 1575,'^ and John's son, Thomas Surtees, sold the 

 property in 1598 to Anthony Felton of Jarrow,'' 

 by whom in 1 608 it was transferred to Arthur Ald- 

 brough '* ; he and Elizabeth his wife in 1612 

 sold it to Christopher Ayscough and Alan his son.'' 

 Alan succeeded his father in 1626 and was living at 

 Skewsby, Yorks, in 1666, as appears by a pedigree he 



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



» KC.H.Dur. i, 355. 



' Proc. Soc. Antij. NeivcastU, ix, 65 ; 

 (Ser. 3), iv, 24.8, where both the hall and 

 pigeon-house are illustrated. 



' See Arch. At!. (New Ser.), xvi, 45-6 ; 

 Proc. Soc. Antiq. NcwcairU, iv, 31, and v, 

 163. 



^ Eraw, Arawe, Onraw are old spellings, 

 xv-xvi cent. 



* r.C.H. Dur. i, 355. 



' Surtees, Hiti. and Antiq. of Co. Palat. 

 of Dur. iii, 228. 



^ See Newsham in EgglescIifTe. 



' Reginald, Lihellu! de AJmiranJis B. 

 Cuthberti yirtutihui (Surt. Soc), 193. 



" Diet. Nat. Biog. Two wills of his 

 have been printed, but thev contain no 

 references to this parish (Bentley, Ex- 

 cerf>ta Historica, 134, 419). 



" Sharp, Mem. of Rebellion of 1569, 

 p. 251. 



" Hitl. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. 125. 



" Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 440. 

 On the descent of Middleton see the 

 article by H. LongstaflFe in Arch. Ael, 



294 



(New Ser.), ii, 69 et seq. Wills and 

 other illustrative documents are there 

 printed. 



'< Teiia de Nc-vill (Rec. Com.), 392. 



•' Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 106, 273 ; 

 file 191, no, 67. 



'* Dur. Rec. cl. 3, file 191, no. 67 ; 

 Surtees, op. cit, iii, 235 ; Foster, Dur. 

 Viiit. Fed. 293. 



^^ Surtees, loc. cit. ; Dur. Rec. cl. 12, 

 no. 2 (i) ; cl. 3, file 192, no. loi. 



"Ibid. cl. 3, R. 94, m. 15. 



" Ibid cl, 12, no. 2 (3). 



