Middle Chirton village

HER Number:
763

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
Middle Chirton village

Place:
Chirton

Map Sheet:
NZ36NW

Class:
Domestic

Site Type: Broad:
Settlement

Site Type: Specific:
Deserted Settlement

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C13

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The township of Chirton lay west of Tynemouth and Preston, and came to include 3 villages. Between 1093 and 1116 two Chirtons were granted to Tynemouth Priory and, since the priory did not acquire West Chirton until 1256, these two must have been East and Middle Chirton. The earliest specific reference seems to be in Vita Ordnance Survey mapwini, c. 1111. In 1294 there were 14 tenants; in 1295 11 bondagers each held 36 acres. The bondage system did not survive, however, and at the Dissolution there were 3 customary tenants with identical holdings while two-thirds of the township were common pasture or waste. Clearly the settlement had shrunk before the end of the Middle Ages, and before 1604 all 3 tenements were in the hands of one family, the Reeds of East Chirton, and later the Milbankes. In 1805 their Balkwell estate was sold. The site of the original village is uncertain - perhaps either Balkwell or West Chirton House, both of which appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map.

Easting:
33727

Northing:
68453

Grid Reference:
NZ3372768453

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 763 >> Surtees Society, Vita Oswini 8, p. 49 W.S. Gibson, 1846, The History of the Monastery at Tynemouth, I, passim; II (1847), lxxxiv, cxlviii H.H.E. Craster, 1907, Chirton Township, Northumberland County History, VIII, 329-34 C.M. Fraser, ed. Lay Subsidy Roll of 1296, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 104 1580, Tynemouthshire Rental, 1DE 10.1 -Northumberland Records Office 1620, Contributions for the King of Bohemia, 1DE 15.12-Northumberland Records Office Land Tax, C188, Land Tax for 1705 and 1708, 753 Box 3, Bundle B no. 12 -Northumberland Records Office J. Fryer, 1784, Balkwell Farm, Shelf 21 no. 4-Northumberland Records Office, Watson Collection Ordnance Survey maps, 1858, 1st ed. 1:2500 LXXXIX.11 S. Wrathmell, Villages of South Northumberland, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cardiff, II, 336-7