A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Durham. In West End, a street which leaves the square 

 at the south-west, is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, 

 built in 1856, apparently on the site of a building 

 dating from about 1800." There was in 1857 a 

 Roman Catholic chapel in SeJgefield dedicateJ in 

 honour of St. Joseph," which has now disappeared. 



The curfew is still rung. There is an ancient 

 custom to play yearly a football match between the 

 agricultural labourers and the artisans of the town, 

 the football being provided by the p.irish clerk. '^ The 

 game is still played on Shrove Tuesday. The ' bull 

 ring,' through which the ball has to be passed three 

 times by the sexton before being thrown to the players, 

 is at the end of the green. The goals are called 

 ' alloying places ' and are about a quarter of a mile 

 apart. If the ball is not ' alleycd ' by six o'clock it 

 becomes the property of the sexton.'"* 



The common fields 

 of the township of 

 SedgefielJ were in- 

 closed in 1636." 



Adjoining Sedge- 

 field village on the 

 north-west are the 

 grounds of Hardwick 

 Hall, the seat of Vis- 

 coLintBoyne. Amanor- 

 houie with a ' great 

 chamber,' a dovecot 

 and a domestic chapel 

 existed here in 1449,''' 

 and the Hebborne 

 family had a capital 

 messuage in 1570." 



Hardwick Hall is of 

 no architectural in- 

 terest, being a j^ain 

 two-story building 

 with cornice and slated 

 hipped roofs. It stands 

 on a slight eminence 

 facing south, overlook- 

 ing what was formerly a lake of nearly 40 

 in extent. The lake was formed about 

 by John Burdon, who spent large sums of money in 

 laying out the park and gardens. He formed a terrace 

 and erected several ornamental buildings on a most 

 sumptuous scale. These are still standing, and are of 

 some interest as examples of the taste of the time. 

 They include a bath-house, a temple and a banqueting- 

 house, all in the classic style, together with a pseudo- 

 Gothic hermitage or library and a sham ruin repre- 

 senting the gateway of a mediaeval castle. This is 

 ' furnished with a turret containing a stone newel 

 stair by which the roof can be reached. According 

 to the fashion of the time real ruins were robbed and 

 mutilated to make sham ones, and Guisborough Priory 

 was laid under contribution to supply Hardwick with 

 Gothic details.'-^ In the bath-house, which stands at 

 the west end of the lake, the Roman Doric order is 



used, in the temple the Roman Ionic, and in the 

 banqueting hall the Corinthian and Ionic. The 

 'temple' stands on high ground on the south side of 

 the lake, opposite the house, and consists of a single 

 room 1 7 ft. 9 in. square inside, surrounded by a 

 colonnade and surmounted by an octagonal lead- 

 covered dome. In the interior occurs the inscription, 

 ' This Temple Begun By lohn Burdon Esq in the 

 Year 1754 and Finished in 1757.' The banqueting- 

 house consists of a room 50 ft. 3 in. long by 26 ft. 

 3 in. in width, with a bay window at each end and 

 an entrance hall and two smaller rooms on the north 

 side. Over the fireplace is a portrait of John Burdon, 

 but the marble mantelpiece and the painted ceiling 

 have been removed, the latter to Brancepeth Castle. 

 The hermitage is a stuccoed castellated structure of 

 rubble and brick with a sham tower at each end. It 



■':n^"rinr.'>Fi.'W'™,>.w»; 





iwl'.w.. 



...,n-. 





Sedcefivld : JHardwick Hall 



acres 



175 + 



is two stories in height, the upper floor having been 

 the ' library ' ; the shelves with their dummy books 

 remain. The lake has been drained and is now over- 

 grown, but a piece of ornamental water of serpentine 

 form remains on the east side of the grounds, crossed 

 by a bridge leading to the ' ruins.' 



There was in 1754 no manor-house.^' The kennels 

 of the South Durham fox-hounds were in the grounds 

 of the hall, before they were removed in 1922 to 

 Rockclift'e Park. To the north-west is Hardwick 

 Mill, now disused, on a branch of the Skerne. Hard- 

 wick millrace is mentioned in a charter, possibly of the 

 13th century, made by the Prior of Durham to his 

 almoner." A windmill in Hardwick is mentioned 



in I 573-4-" 



South of Hardwick Hall and on the other side of a 

 road running west from Sedgefield to Bradbury is 

 Sands Hall, which belonged to Mr. Richard Ord, who 



'* Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 337. 



'» Ibid. 



•« Ibid. 332-3. 



i«a York,, ff^cekly Post, 18 Feb. 191 2. 



'" Dur. Rec. cl. 4, no. i, fol. 306. 



" Dur. Rcc. cl. 3, R. 50, m. 3 d. 



" Exch. K..R. Misc. Bki. xxxviii, fol. 



'" Torki. Arch. Journ. xiii, 237. The 

 carved eastern end of the Bruce tomb, 

 or cenotaph, in Guisborough Parish 

 Church was brought to Hardwick at 

 this time, and was seen there by both 

 Hutchinson and Surtees. It remained 

 at Hardwick till about 1865, when it 

 was taken back to Guisborough aod 



322 



placed in the Priory ruins, where it 

 remained until the tomb was restoicd 

 in 1904 ; ace V.C.H. Torh. N. R. 

 ii, 363. 



*^ For a contemporaiy description sec 

 Hutchinson, op. cit. iii, 65-6. 



" Surtees, op cit. iii, 40. 



** Pat. 16 Eliz. pt. xi, m. 7. 



