STOCKTON WARD 



SEDGEFIELD 



Stillington : The charities founded by the Rev. 

 William Cassidi : — 



(n) For the fund known as the Bamford Fund sec 

 under the parish of Bishopton. 



(i) The charity known as the Holgate Educa- 

 tional Charity was founded by declaration of trust 

 2 1 April 1875, applicable towards the maintenance 

 of the Sunday school and other religious instruction, 

 with power to expend £2 yearly upon the sustentation 

 of the Mission Room. The trust fund of the educa- 

 tional branch consists of £()^ guaranteed and £()^ 

 preference stock of the London and North Eastern 

 Rallw.iy, producing £y 121. yearly, which is applied 



in the purchase of books for the Sunday school, and 

 the tru5t fund for providing £2 a year for the Mission 

 Room consists of ^^25 in each of the same stocks. 



(') The Church Repair Fund,^ founded by declara- 

 tion of trust 31 December 1880. The trust funds 

 consist of ;^ 1 00 4 per cent. 2nd preference, ^^50 

 5 per cent, preferred ordinary, and £^0 deferred 

 ordinary stock of the same railway. 



The several sums of railway stock are held by the 

 official trustees, who also hold a sum of j^l 8/. 4</. 

 consols in trust for the last-mentioned charity, repre- 

 senting the proceeds of the sale of letters of allotment 

 from time to time. 



SEDGEFIELD 



Ceddesfeld (x cent.) ; Seggefeld (xii cent.). 



The parish of Sedgefield included in 183 1 the 

 townships of Bradbury, Butterwick, Embleton, Fish- 

 burn, Foxton with Shotton, Mordon and Sedgefield, 

 and had an area of 17,480 acres.' The township of 

 Foxton with Shotton was united for ecclesiastical 

 purposes with Stillington in 1886, and that of Emble- 

 ton was transferred to the parish of Grindon in igoS. 

 The old parish area occupied the north-west corner of 

 Stockton Ward, and was bounded on the north-west 

 and west by Bishop Middleham and Ayclifl'e parishes, 

 on the south by Stainton le Street and Redmarshall, 

 on the south-east by Grindon, the east by Elwick and 

 the north by Trimdon and Kelloe. Most of it is 

 level ground, in no place rising higher than 400 ft. 

 above the ordnance datum. It is watered by the 

 River Skernc and its numerous tributaries, and the 

 subsoil near the streams is .Alluvium. Througliout the 

 rest of the p.arish it is Magnesiin Limestone. The 

 soil is clay. About thirty-five per cent, of the total 

 area of the parish is under cultivation, oats, wheat, 

 barley, potatoes and turnips being the chief crops. 

 The remainder is gi\en up to pasture. 



The small town of Sedgefield is on the main road 

 from Stockton to Durham and near the centre of the 

 parisli. It stands on a low gravel hill, and is built 

 round a large square in which there stood in 1794 

 the market cross.- Sedgefield became a market town 

 in I 31 2, when the bishop, while reserving to himself 

 the tolls and customs, granted his tenants a F'riday 

 market and a five days' fair yearly on the vigil and 

 feast of St. Edmund the Archbishop and the three 

 days following.^ Before 1343 the Friday market had 

 fallen into neglect, and unauthorized buying and 

 selling took place on Sundays. At the request of 

 the rector of the parish the bishop prohibited this 

 cu-tom.'' A market was still held on Fridays in 

 I 794 and a yearly fair on the Friday after the feast 

 of St. Edmund the Confessor.* In 1830 the market 

 was ' but nominal.' * A fair for the sale of swine was 

 held on the first Friday in each month.' The market- 

 place ii mentioned in the 15th and 1 6th centuries as 

 the ' Market gate ' or ' Town gate.' * During the 



rebellion of 1569, in which the inhabitants of this 

 parish seem to have taken an active part, the church 

 books were carried to the ' cross in the town-gate,' 

 and there burnt. ^ 



The church of St. Edmund is on the east side of 

 the market-place. Its churchyard is entered at the 

 west end by a lych-gate erected in 1906, near to 

 which is a stone cross erected in 1920 as a War 

 Memorial. The church has associations with the 

 rebellion of 1569, when various inhabitants set up a 

 high altar there, brought in holy water and said mass. 

 The high altar was afterwards destroyed by the 

 queen's soldiers."' 



The rectory, which stands to the south of the 

 church, was described in 1634 as consisting of ' a hall, 

 a parlour, certain chambers, with other houses adjoin- 

 ing upon the same house, a gallery, a study, a chamber 

 fallen down, a coach house, a gatehouse, a house at 

 the west gate, a pigeon house, a stable, a barn, an 

 oxhouse, a hide house, a windmill, and other houses.' '' 

 It was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1792, but 

 was rebuilt for the Rev. George Barrington, rector. 

 Over the doorway on the north side is a tablet in- 

 scribed : ' Munificentia Samuelis et Shute Barrington 

 Quorum Unus Chassis Britannicas Prxfectus Alter 

 Ecclesie Dunelmensis Episcopus Uterque Summo 

 Omnium Praeconio.' The house is a large stuccoed 

 building of two stories with stone slated roofs. 



Cooper's Almshouses, standing on the north side of 

 the church, form a one-storied yellow-washed brick 

 building erected in 1703 and restored in 1868. 



The manor-house, a large well-designed three-story 

 brick building on the west side of the market-place, 

 now used as District Council offices, has a mural sun- 

 di.al dated 1707. Over the mantelpiece in the board- 

 room is a carving attributed to Grinling Gibbons. 



Adjoining the almshouses at the north-east corner 

 of the square is the site of the old school-house of 

 Sedgefield. A new building was erected in 1826." 

 Front Street, running east from this corner of the 

 square, contains the Parish Institute, founded in 

 1849.'^ From the north-west corner of the square 

 North End runs north and becomes the road to 



3 This is for the benefit of Stillington 

 Church. 



' Pop. Rer. (1831). 



* Hutchinson, Hiit, and Antip of Dur. 

 iii, 49. 



' Rig. Piiljr. Durtelm. (Rolls Scr.), ii, 

 1 1 So. 



* Dur. Rcc. cl. 3, R. 29, m. 19. 



^ Hutchinson, op. cit. iii, 49, 62. 



' Fordyce, Hisl. and Aniiq. of en. Palal. 

 of Dur. ii, 331. 



' Ibid. 



'Dur. Rec. cl. 3, R. 14, fol. 212; 

 Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 331. 



321 



' Fordyce, loc. cit. 

 l» Ibid. 



" Terrier of 1654 quoted by Surtees, 

 Hiir. and Antiq. of co. PaUt. of Dur, iii, 



3 3- 



" Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 352. 

 " Ibid. 340. 



41 



