A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



1794.. To this last Thomas his father's cousin, 

 Elizabeth Bland, left her moiety of the Bland estates, 

 and he took the surname of Bland. He left a son 

 Thomas, who about i 800 sold Blakiston to William 

 Russell of Branccpeth (q.v.), and from him it 

 descended to Viscount Boyne, who sold it to Mr. 

 Wanless. Mr. William Potter, who married Miss 

 Wanless, now owns it. 



CHJMBERLJND, once the estate of Simon 

 Chamber, was after the death of Sir William Blakiston 

 in 1418 made the subject of inquiry on behalf of 

 Thomas Langton of Wynyard. The claimant said he 

 had held a messuage, two cottages and a ploughland 

 called Chamberland in Blakiston by feoffment of 

 William de Hoton, 

 but had been expelled 

 by the statement in 

 the inquisition post- 

 mortem that Sir Wil- 

 liam held it.'" The 

 return in the Feo- 

 dary of 1 430, quoted 

 above, shows that the 

 Langtons established 

 their right. 



Another estate 

 noticed in the in- 

 quisitions is that of 

 Richard de Hard- 

 wick, who in or 

 before 1341 had a 

 messuage and 60 acres 

 in Blakiston, held of 

 the lord of Blakiston 

 by a rent of 3/. ; 24 

 acres of it rendered 

 23/. 6d. to Roger de 

 Blakiston.*' 



Sir Richard Smith in ijijas a 'Papist' registered 

 an estate in Blakiston of ^^lo yearly value.'* 



In recent times the chief resident families have 

 been those of Hogg, still seated there, Page and 

 Grey.'9 



The church of ST. MJRl' THE 

 CHURCH yiRGIN is a cruciform structure consist- 

 ing of chancel 33 ft. by 17 ft., with north 

 vestry and organ chamber, north transept 1 5 ft. by 

 14 ft. 9 in., south transept 15 ft. 9 in. by 15 ft., 

 central tower i 5 ft. square, clearstoried nave 43 ft. 6 in. 

 by 14 ft. 10 in. with north and south aisles each 10 ft. 

 wide, and south porch 8 ft. 6 in. square, all these 

 measurements being internal. The width across the 

 transepts is 51 ft. 8 in. and at the west end across 

 nave and aisles 40 ft. 



The building is of exceptional interest as affording 

 the only example in Northumbria of a pre-Conquest 

 church on the cross plan. Of this early structure — 

 dating probably from the first half of the i ith century 

 — the tower, transepts, and part of the nave walls 

 remain. The aisles were added at the end of the 



1 2th century, the nave walls being pierced for the 

 arcades, and the chancel was rebuilt on a larger scale 

 in the 13th century. At the time of the reconstruc- 

 tion of the nave by the addition of the aisles the 

 original east and west arches of the tower were rebuilt, 

 but the openings to the transepts were retained, 

 though they were enlarged by the removal of the 

 inner order of voussoirs and of the portions of 

 the jambs which supported them.''" The tower is 

 the largest of all those of pre-Conquest date in the 

 northern counties, being 20 ft. 9 in. on each face 

 externally," and stands quite distinct from the rest of 

 the building, the four limbs of which are built against 

 it, as at Stow in Lincolnshire, the four angles rising 



Scale of Feet 

 Plan of Norton Church 



niU Pre-Conouest 

 Transitional c.Ii95 



I31CEMIIRY 



151 Century 

 O Modern 



40 50 



clear from the ground, as may still be seen from the 

 aisles where they are not hidden by later work. 

 Before being rebuilt in the 13th century the chancel, 

 like the transepts and nave, originally abutted against 

 the tower. The north transept, which retains its 

 original walling intact, clearly shows the ancient con- 

 struction, its outside width being contained within 

 the limits of the tower. The south transept has been 

 a good deal altered and its southern end entirely 

 rebuilt, but it otherwise retains its original form. 

 Built into the wall near the tower is part of a pre- 

 Conquest cross on which an interlaced design is 

 worked. '^^ 



In 1340 Richard de Bury complained that the 

 canons neglected to keep the chancel in order,"- and 

 in 1410 Bishop Langley ordered them to repair it,"^ 

 but by the end of the century it had ' fallen into 

 ruin and desolation, as well in the roof, the stone 

 walls and windows as in various other parts.' Bishop 

 Fox, therefore, in 1496 sequestered the incomes of 

 the canons for the necessary repairs and did the work 

 himself," the existing roof, the priest's doorway, and 



""' Dur. Rec. cl. ^, R. 35, m. 17 d. A 

 Simon de ia Chamber is named in 

 1387 (ibid. R. 32, m. 9). 



»' Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 22. 



*® Hutchinson, op. cit. iii, 112. 



^^ Burke, Commoners ; Landed Gentry, 



*> C. C. Hodge« in The lUliq. (New 

 Scr.), viii, 8-1 1, where an account of the 



prc-Conque3t building is given. A. H. 

 Thompson, in Ground-plans of Engl. Par. 

 Churches, remarks that Norton is the 

 earliest surviving example of a plan 

 in which the various portions of the 

 church, nave, chancel and transepts are 

 gathered together in one structural 

 connexion. 



310 



" Ovingham 18 ft. 6 in., Billingham 

 17 ft. 6 in., Moukwearmouth 11 ft. gin. 

 (porch with tower over). 



i^'a V.C.H. Dur. i, 234. 



"- Reg. Palar. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 

 299. 



°^ Surtees, op. cit. iii, 158. 



^* Hutchinson, op. cit. iii, ill. 



