SOCKBURN MANOR

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Earthworks of a post-Medieval mansion and gardens belonging to the Conyers and Blackett families, including possible traces of an earlier, partly moated manor house, situated to the south and west of the former parish church. The earthworks survive within parkland created to accompany the present Sockburn Hall in the 1830s.

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Sockburn Manor was presented to the Conyers family to commemorate the legendary slaying of the "Sockburn Worm" by Sir John Conyers. Now only deep traces of foundations of gardens and orchards a little to the south of Sockburn Church (NZ 30 NW 3) mark the site of the manor. (1)

NZ 35010707 A quantity of grass-covered stone and brick walling is situated in a field 50 m south east of Sockburn Church. The walling is as shown on the sketch survey, and is vague and much spread, the banks retaining a width of 2 m and maximum height of 0.5 m. Adjoining, on the south, are vague, unsurveyable traces of further small enclosures. (2)

NZ 349 070. Site classified as a deserted Medieval village by Beresford and Hurst but Austin says that it is an enclosure, possibly moated, containing the substantial earthworks of a probable manor house with associated outbuildings. Nothing visible on OS air photographs. (3-5)

The site was surveyed by RCHME during a project on scheduled
monuments in County Durham.

To the south of the church a pasture field preserves a series of
earthworks. In the north-east part of the field are located a group
of house platforms and robber trenches defining what appear to have been the former stances of buildings; these trenches average 1.7 m wide and 0.4 m deep (A on plan). A small stone-built arch no more than 1 m high and 1.4 m wide lies almost in the north-east corner of the field (B on plan).

What may be the prospect mound of a formal garden occurs in the south, of earthen dump construction and standing 1 m high (C on plan) it offers a view north along a path to the ruins of the church and Sockburn Hall beyond. In the north-west corner of the field (D on plan) lie the remains of what may have been the platform or foundations of a substantial building now defined by a scarp up to 2.5 m wide and surviving up to 0.5 m high. Some masonry is exposed in the north part of this scarp. The remainder of this site is composed of boundary banks no more than 0.4 m high, and remains of ridge-and-furrow cultivation. In 1470 a licence to construct a castle at Sockburn was granted by Bishop Booth (6a), which, if built, appears to have left little trace.

Taken as a whole (site of Sockburn Manor and that of the deserted Medieval village and possible post-Medieval garden NZ 3499 0705), this site may represent a Medieval village with its attendant church, which has been subsequently overlain by elements of a formal garden focused on the adjacent Sockburn Hall and the ruins of the church. (6)

Listed as a possible castle by Cathcart King. (6A)

A Level 3 earthwork survey was undertaken by English Heritage between January and March 2007 (7). This work, in conjunction with a geophysical survey by GSB Prospection Ltd undertaken in February 2007 (7a), demonstrated that the earthworks across the pasture to the south and west of the ruins of All Saints' church (NZ 30 NW3) represent the position of the former post-medieval mansion of the Conyers family. During the 17th century, if not before, this house was set within an arrangement of formal gardens, including the corner mount mentioned by Topping (6).
The post-medieval hall, noted in John Leland's Itinerary circa 1538 and mentioned by William Dugdale circa 1666, had long been demolished by 1823. However, despite demolition and stone-robbing, the outline of the main east-west range of this house remains clearly visible, centred at NZ 3503 0705. A further range, perhaps a service wing, extends northwards from the eastern end, and together these ranges define two sides of a courtyard which would have been approached from the north. The garden earthworks suggest three, perhaps four main compartments arranged immediately to the south and west of the house, separated by banks, hollows and terraces (C to E on the report plan), and smaller, more intimate compartments located between the east end of the house and the river (F).

Suggestions of a deserted medieval village and of a moated site containing the manorial site to the south of the church (authorities 3 and 4) are not supported either by field remains or documentary evidence, though a possible moated site, perhaps the precursor to the post-medieval mansion mentioned in 15th-century documents, has been identified to the west of the church (enclosure A). A copy of the survey report is lodged in the NMR archive (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

Surtees, R, 1823. History of Durham 3 (243-46)

( 1a) Externally held archive reference

Bowes MSS 51

( 2) Field Investigators Comments

F1 DSmith/27-MAY-1957/OS Archaeology Division Field Investigator

( 3) edited by Maurice Beresford and John G Hurst 1971 Deserted medieval villages : studies

1971 Page(s)187

( 4) Council for British Archaeology Group 3: Archaeological newsbulletin for Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland

(D Austin) 1972 Page(s)10

(6) Field Investigators Comments

Peter Topping/29-JUL-1991/RCHME: Durham SAMs Project

( 5) Aerial photograph

APs (OS 69/348 125-6)

(6a) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

1 Page(s)139

(7) Went, D and Jecock, M 2007 Sockburn Hall, Darlington: An archaeological investigation of the medieval and post-medieval manors and the setting of the pre-Conquest church

(7A) Externally held archive reference

GSB Prospection Ltd 2007 Sockburn County Durham Geophysical Survey Report 2007/09

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