Gateshead Borough

HER Number:
293

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gateshead Borough

Place:
Gateshead

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Domestic

Site Type: Broad:
Settlement

Site Type: Specific:
Town

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C11

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
There are possible documentary references to Gateshead in 653 A.D. and 1080, but there was certainly a settlement there when Bishop Puiset granted Gateshead a charter in the 1180s. By that time the borough had mills, fisheries and bakehouses. The east part of the township was the bishop's park, the south was the Fell or waste; the forest in much of the rest was cleared for cultivation, with parts already sold off to create private estates. The inhabited part was small in the medieval period - Pipewellgate and Hillgate along the river on either side of the bridge, Oakwellgate on the east edge of the town, and Bottle Bank/Fore Street (site of the market) running south along the old Roman road. The medieval burgage pattern survived into the 19th century at least, except in Oakwellgate which may never have had it.

Easting:
2500

Northing:
6300

Grid Reference:
NZ25006300

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 293 >> W. Greenwell, ed. 1852, Boldon Buke, Surtees Society, 25, pp. 44, xxv, xxxvii W. Greenwell, ed. 1856, Bishop Hatfield's Survey, Surtees Society, 32, pp. 88-89 W. Greenwell, ed. 1871, Feodarium Prioratus Dunelmensis, Surtees Society, 58, pp. 7, 196-7, 307 W. Hutchinson, 1787, History of...Durham, II, pp. 570-90 D.A. Kirby, ed. 1972, Parliamentary Surveys of the Bishopric of Durham, Surtees Society, II 185, pp. 111-19 R. Surtees, 1820, History of...Durham, II, pp. 105-135 TW.H. Knowles & J.R. Boyle, 1890, Vestiges of Old Newcastle and Gateshead, pp. 218-49 M.H. Dodds, 1915, The Bishops' Boroughs, Archaeologia Aeliana, 3, XII, pp. 81-185 F.W.D. Manders, 1973, A History of Gateshead C. Hutton, 1770, Newcastle upon Tyne E. MacKenzie, 1827, A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Town and Country of Newcastle, p 745 M. Beresford, 1967, New Towns of the Middle Ages, p 431 M. Beresford & H.P.R. Finberg, 1973, English Medieval Boroughs: A Handlist, p 106 Excavation report,J. Nolan & J. Vaughan/Arcus 2002, Excavations at the site of the Regional Music Centre, Oakwellgate, Gateshead, Draft Report Excavation report,Oxford Archaeology North, 2003, Bottle Bank, Gateshead, Archaeological Excavation Report - Draft P. Bidwell, 1990, Tyne and Wear Museums, Oakwellgate, Archaeological Evaluation B. Harbottle, 1990, Church Street, Archaeological Evaluation P. Jubb & I. Ayris, 1995, Survey and history of stone river wall J. Nolan, 1994, Bottle Bank, Archaeological Evaluation; Grace McCombie, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead - Pevsner Architectural Guides; Ian Nairn, 1964, A Townscape Gazetteer - County Durham, Architectural Review, Vol. 135 (1964) p 120; The Archaeological Practice Ltd., 2009, West Central Gateshead - Archaeological Assessment