A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



for the only chapel in Stainton was a chapel of ease 

 which had no lands except the place on the lord's 

 waste where it stood." There is, however, a record 

 of the sale of a messuage and 4 oxgangs in Stainton, 

 apparently ecclesiastical land, by John Awbrcy to John 

 Richardson in I 599. '' There is no other reference to 

 a chapel of ease in Stainton. 



The school was founded in 1745 

 CHARITIES by will of the Rev. Thos. Nicholson.' 



In 1719 Mary Barker, as stated in 

 the Parliamentary Returns of 1786, gave ^^5 for the 

 poor, which is now deposited in the Darlington 

 Savings Bank, the interest of which, amounting to 

 2/. 6a'., is given to poor women. 



STOCKTON ON TEES 



Stocton, Stoketon, c. i zoo. 



The parish of Stockton on Tees, formed in 1713 

 out of what had long been a parochial chapelry in 

 Norton, comprises the three townships of Stockton, 

 East Hartburn and Preston upon Tees, which are 

 found closely associated in the earliest notices of the 

 district. Norton forms the northern boundary, the 

 eastern touches Billingh.im, and the western Elton and 

 Long Newton. Egglescliffe lies to the south-west, and 

 along the south the River Tees divides the parish and 

 county from Yorkshire. The township of Stockton 

 occupies the eastern half of its parish, with Hartburn 

 to the west and Preston to the south-west. Between 

 these latter townships flows Hartburn Beck, which 

 gives a name to East Hartburn here and also to West 

 Hartburn some miles off in Middleton St. George. 

 This stream has a number of titles, being called Lust- 

 ring or Lustram Beck after passing into Stockton town- 

 ship ; here it winds round the town on the west and 

 north, receiving some other streams, and joins the Tees 

 at Portrack. The areas of the townships are respectively 

 3>03i. '.045 snd 1,136 acres, 5,212 acres in all, 

 including 4 acres of inland water, 79 of tidal water 

 and 36 of foreshore.' 



The surface generally lies at an elevation of 50 ft. 

 to 100 ft. above the ordnance datum, but with a belt 

 of low-lying ground along the Tees and depressions 

 through which run the streams mentioned above. 



Stockton is now mainly urban, but it was formerly 

 a rich agricultural district.^ According to Sir George 

 Bowes in 1569 'the best country for corn' lay 

 around Stockton. ^ The district was in 1 647 described 

 as a ' champion country, very fruitful, though a stiff 

 clay ' ; there was no wood growing on the castle 

 demesne or elsewhere in that part of the country.'' 

 In an official report of the end of the 1 8th century 

 the soil was described as loamy or rich clay ; the flat 

 grounds near the Tees, which were of considerable 

 extent, were drained by means of wide ditches com- 

 monly called ' Stells.' * Wheat and other cereals are 

 grown. A chamber of agriculture was formed in 1888. 



The main p.irt of the town of Stockton, centrally 

 placed in its township, stands well up above the river, 

 here flowing north, whereas on the opposite Yorkshire 

 bank the land is low and flat ; but to the east of the 

 town is a large low-lying tract of marsh land, and on 

 the north and west is the valley of the Lustring Beck. 



The winding course of the Tees to the east of the 

 town caused serious inconvenience to shipping even 

 when sea-going vessels were very small compared with 

 their modern successors, and in 1791 a 'cut' or canal 

 across one large bend called Mandale was proposed. 

 A Bill was passed through Parliament after some years' 

 effort in 1808,'' and the new channel was opened on 

 18 September 18 10. Though only 220 yards in 

 length, it saved a circuit of about 2^ miles.' A second 

 and longer cut to the east made under an Act passed in 

 1828* was opened in 1831.'' More recently the 

 county and parish boundaries have been adjusted to 

 the new course of the river, Mandale being taken from 

 Stockton and added to Thornaby in 1887,'" and the 

 part of Linthorpe north of the second 'cut' being 

 added to Stockton in 1895." ' Portrack Lake' is the 

 old Tees bed cut off from the newer channel. At 

 Portrack vessels used to be moored during the winter.'- 

 The town of Stockton grew up on the elevated 

 tongue of land between the Tees and Lustring Beck, 

 .along the road going north from the Bishop of Dur- 

 ham's manor-house or castle, long ago destroyed, to 

 the old parish church at Norton. This ro.id begins 

 as a wide and handsome street called High Street, 

 said to be the widest in England and nearly half 

 a mile long, in the centre of which stands the pic- 

 turesque town-hall or town-house, built in 1735 on 

 the site of the smithy and enlarged in 1744, when 

 the old tollhooth was taken down.'' This tollbooth 

 was of the usual type, an upper chamber supported on 

 pillars and approached by steps ; it had been used as 

 a school in its latter days." A piazza was added on 

 the north side of the town-hall in 1768, while on the 

 south side the Doric column, still standing, was built 

 on the site of the older covered cross in the market- 

 place.'* In the same year the shambles were built 

 further south in the centre of High Street ; they were 

 rebuilt in 1825.'* The town-hall, the lower part 

 of which is occupied as a shop, was used as assembly 

 rooms as well as for civic business. North of it, on 

 the e.ist side of the street, is the parish church adjoin- 

 ing the site of the ancient chapel. Thus from the 

 modern centre of the town some notion of ancient 

 Stockton may be obtained : the long wide ' place ' 

 suitable for a market or meeting place with the 

 manor-house closing its southern end, the cross, toll- 

 booth and smithy in the centre, and the chapel and 



a Arch. Ael. (New Sen), iii, 92. 



b Ibid. 20. 



c See r.C.H. Dur. i, 406. 



* Census Rep, (1901). 



' In 1905 there were 1,055 acres of 

 arable land and 2,671 acres of permanent 

 grass (Statistics from Bd. of Agric. 1905). 



' Sharp, Mem. of the Reheliion of 1 569, 

 p. So. 



* Surteea, Hist, and yintij. of co. Palat. 

 of Dur, iii, 172. 



^ Brewster, Paroch. Hist, and Anti^. of 

 Stoikron-upsn-Tees, 10+. The first edition, 

 1796, is that cited unless where otherwise 

 indicated. 



* Local and Pers. Act, 48 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 4$. 



' Fordyce, Hist, and Antij. of co. Palat. 

 of Dur. ii, 187. 



' Local and Pers. Act, 9 Geo. IV, 

 cap. 97. 



^ Fordyce, loc, cit. 



"^ Local Govt. Board Order, no. 20699. 



" Ibid. no. P 10S8. A part of Lin- 

 tliorpe was added to the borough in 1889 

 by Local Act, 52-53 Vict. cap. 92. 



'- Mackenzie and Ross, /'/>w of co. 

 Palat. of Dur. ii, 49. 



" Brewster, op. cit. 88. 



" Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 174 ; Richmond, 

 Local Rec. of Stockton^ 64. 



^^ Brewster, op. cit. 93. 



•* Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 175. 



348 



