Birtley village

HER Number:
670

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Birtley village

Place:
Birtley

Map Sheet:
NZ25NE

Class:
Domestic

Site Type: Broad:
Settlement

Site Type: Specific:
Village

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C12

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The earliest reference is in Boldon Buke (c.1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset). "Birtley and Tribley render 20s, and attend the great chase with 2 greyhounds". According to Surtees the Birtleys held the manor of Birtley for several generations, but by the time of Hatfield's Survey (c.1382) the vill was held by Lord Nevill, and Gilbert Eglyne, who had married a Birtley heiress, on the same terms as above. It was not, at that time, an important centre and was listed under Kibblesworth. The village lay close to and parallel with the east side of the old Great North Road. Roberts and Austin describe it as having an irregular two-row plan with green.

Easting:
274

Northing:
557

Grid Reference:
NZ274557

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 670 >> W. Greenwell, ed. 1852, Boldon Buke, Surtees Society, 25, p. 67 W. Greenwell, ed. 1856, Bishop Hatfield's Survey, Surtees Society, 32, p. 107 W. Hutchinson, 1787, History of...Durham, II, 491-2 R. Surtees, 1820, History of...Durham, II, 188-90 Dept. Pal. & Dip. Durham, Shafto Papers, nos. 401, 616, 1471, 1472, 1473.1-8,1478 Carr-Ellison, (Hedgeley) MSS -Birtley, Birtley Moor, 1632-1731 ZCE 5.12- Northumberland Record Office Dept. Pal. & Dip. Durham, Tithe Awards, 1840, Birtley Dept. Pal. & Dip. Durham, 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1:2,500 scale, Durham VII.9 B.K. Roberts & D. Austin, 1975, A Preliminary Check-List of Rural Clusters in County Durham, p. 23