A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



In West Hartlepool there are 363 acres of arable 

 land and 100 acres of permanent grass ; in Brierton 

 454 acres of arable land, 204 acres of permanent 

 grass and 14 acres of plantation ; in Seaton 1,388 

 acres of arable land, 204 acres of permanent grass and 

 9 acres of plantation. • The whole parish is a plain, 

 and the land seldom rises more than 100 ft. above the 

 sea level. The soil is loam, and the chief crops arc 

 wheat, barley, oats, potatoes and turnips. 



Place names of interest are Foggy Furze, between 

 Seaton Carew and West H.irtlepool, the North Garc 

 Sands, by Seaton, Cold Knuckles and Ch.ipel Open 

 on the Seaton sandhills. 



A branch from the Durham and Hartlepool road 

 leads from Hart to West H.irtlepool ; the Stockton 

 road leaves West Hartlepool on the south and passes 

 through Seaton. There are roads from the various 

 villages to West Hartlepool, but there are no other 

 main roads in the parish. The West Hartlepool 

 branch of the London and North Eastern Railway 

 has stations at West Hartlepool and Seaton Carew, 

 which were taken over from earlier local lines. - 



The Ward Jackson Public Park was opened at 

 West Hartlepool on I 1 July I 883. 



The Municipal Buildings in Church Square were 

 opened on i May 1S89 ; the Public Library adjoins 

 them. The Town Hall was opened in 1 893 and 

 the Market Hall was opened in the same year, market 

 day being Saturday. The Technical College was 

 opened in 1896 and the Cameron Hospital in 1905. 



On I June 1852 the Jackson Dock was opened, 

 called after Ralph Ward Jackson. The Swainson 

 Dock followed it on 3 June 1856. Subsequently two 

 North Eastern Railway Docks were constructed. 

 The area in Hartlepool and West Hartlepool covered 

 by docks is at present 201 acres. 



St. Joseph's Roman Catholic chapel in West Hartle- 

 pool was consecrated in 1 894. Of the three Con- 

 gregational chapels St. George's was opened in 1902, 

 Bellevue in 1875, and Tower Street in 1854. The 

 Swedish church was founded in 1884. There are 

 two chapels of the Presbyterian Church of England, 

 opened in 1880 and 1900 respectively, while a Baptist 

 chapel was opened in 1867. There is a Jews' syna- 

 gogue, which was opened in 1872. The earliest of 

 four Primitive Methodist chapels was opened in 1861, 

 a Wesleyan chapel in 1872, a Wesley an Methodist in 

 1905, and the remaining three Primitive Methodist 

 chapels in 1875, 1894 and 1897. The Friends have 

 a meeting-house in York Road. 



Saltworks were carried on at Seaton Carew from 

 the 14th to the 16th century.' Fishing and agri- 

 culture are the occupations of the country inhabitants 

 of the parish, while shipbuilding is the chief industry 

 of West Hartlepool.'' The Hartlepools form the fifth 

 port in the kingdom for the import of timber ; other 

 imports are iron and provisions. The exports are 

 coal, coke and machinery. The iron is wrought by 

 the South Durham Steel and Iron Company and at 

 the Seaton Carew Iron Works. 



The little village of Brierton lies in the south-west 

 corner of the old parish, and is connected with 

 Seaton Carew by Brierton Lane. 



On the coast of the parish to the south of West 

 Hartlepool lie Seaton Carew and Seaton. At present 

 they are two distinct townships, Seaton Carew lying 

 within the municipality of West Hartlepool and 

 Seaton outside it, but in earlier times the whole was 

 called Seaton Carew. The name is derived from the 

 family of Carew, who held the manor from the 12th 

 century. At the beginning of the 19th century the 

 boundary between Stranton and Seaton Carew was 

 marked by a wall called the White Dyke, and a 

 boundary post on the seashore. On the southern 

 boundary of the manor there was another boundary 

 post at Wambling's Run, a little stream at Tees 

 mouth which divided Seaton Carew from Greena- 

 bella.' There is an open village green at Seaton 

 Carew. The custom of riding the boundaries was 

 maintained here in the earlier part of the 19th cen- 

 tury.' Inland from Seaton Carew lies the village of 

 Oughton. 



There is very little to connect Stranton with 

 general history. Traces of Roman occupation have 

 been discovered on the sandhills near Seaton Carew 

 in the shape of an ancient midden containing fragments 

 of Samian ware, fibulae. Sec' During the rebellion 

 of I 569 the rebels stole ' a sylver pece ' from the vicar 

 of Stranton," and one man of the parish was executed 

 as a rebel. ^ In 1597 there was a severe outbreak of 

 the plague, which began on 2 1 May and lasted 

 throughout the summer.'" At the beginning of the 

 19th century there were traces of entrenchments on a 

 hill at Tunstall, which, it was conjectured, might have 

 been made by the Scots when they occupied Hartle- 

 pool." 



The whole of the parish of 

 M.JNORS, Izjc. Stranton at the time of the Norman 

 Conquest formed part of Hartness, 

 and passed by marriage to the family of Brus.'- In 

 1220 William de Feugeres paid homage to the king 

 for his father's lands in BRIERTON (Brereton, xiv 

 cent. ; Brearton, xvi cent. ; Briarton, xvii cent.) and 

 elsewhere. The Feugeres were a Norman family 

 who held lands in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and 

 it is probable, though not certain, that Brierton in 

 Hartness is meant here.'^ It is not mentioned again 

 among the lands of the Feugeres,''' but is certainly 

 referred to for the first time in a suit of I 305 brought 

 by Ralph son of William against Geoffrey de Hartle- 

 pool, from which it appears that William Sayer and 

 Margaret his wife had enfeoffed Geoffrey of the 

 manor of Brierton, reserving a rent of £30, 40 quarters 

 of wheat, 40 quarters of barley and 20 quarters 

 of oats. This rent Ralph had bought from William 

 Sayer and Margaret, but Geoffrey refused to pay.'' 

 In I 31 5 Ralph Fitz William died seised of j{[50 rent 

 from the manor of Brierton ; it was held by his son 

 Robert at his death less than two years later.'" In 

 1344 William Lord Greystock, grandson of Robert, 



' Statisiics from BJ. of Agric. {1905). 



* See Hartlepool. 



' I'.C.H. Dur. ii, 294 ; Reg. Pa/at. 

 Dunclm. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 370 ; Dur. Rec. 

 cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 107, 297 ; file 170, no. 3 ; 

 file 177, no. 99. 



* y.C.H. Dur. ii, 307. 



' Arch. All. (New Ser.), x, 105, 11 j n. 



^ Ibid. 111. ' Ibid. 103. 



' Surtees, Hist, and Antij. of Dur. iii, 

 125 n. 



" Sharp, Mem. of the Rebellion of I 569, 

 250. 



'" Par. Reg. 



" Surtees, op. cit. I 23. Sec Hartlepool. 



'= See Hart. 



366 



'^ Guisbro* Chartul. (Surt. Soc), ii, 

 57 n.; Cat. Rot. CIjus. (Rec. Com.), i, 

 188,4.45. 'Mbid. 



'^ Plae. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 30S ; 

 Reg. Palat. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 1056 ; 

 I.apsle)', Co. Palal. of Dur. 211-12. 



"■ Cat. Inj. p.m. (Edw. II), vi, 24, 32 ; 

 Cal. Close, 1313-18, p. 489. 



