length of 48 feet at GH for the brick wall which closed the court at the eastern end of its north side. This wall no longer exists, but its line is indicated by the southern boundary G H of the two shops and houses which front the Market Place. "The gate entring into the manor house " finds itself therefore quite naturally at EFG opposite the opening at the west end of the south side of the Market Place, immediately within the gate through which the vicarage and Mr. Kettlewell's house are now approached. EAST SIDE. The principal buildings on the east side of the court, as described in the survey of 1561, were, to the north, the bishop's lodging, consisting apparently of four small rooms beneath a great chamber 54 feet by 18 feet; a chapel, 42 feet by 16 feet, placed east and west over a vault, and approached by a long stone stair "aslant the wall from the north est corner of that quarter of the howse," with a porch at its north end; an oratory 21 feet by 16 feet; and, to the south, a long building placed north and south containing the parlour, 48 feet by 20 feet, with a great chamber over, and with other rooms to the north making out an additional length of 30 feet between the parlour and the chapel; as well as some smaller rooms which are duly described. Below some of these were "vawtts for sellerage of beer and wyne.' 112 The description in the survey of 1561 indicates that these buildings were then in bad condition. Their ruins still existed at the end of the 18th century, with "the remains of the ribs and groinings of an extensive vault." Everything has now disappeared except the western wall which formed the east side of the court. This wall, HJ K L M, now forms the eastern boundary of the garden on the north side of Mr. Kettlewell's house, and the site of the buildings themselves is now the garden behind the manager's house of the London Joint Stock Bank. The length of the wall towards the court, from H to M, is almost exactly the 126 feet which the survey of 1561 gives as the width of the court from north to south.4 1 Called the " dynyng chamber" in the survey of 1577 (Raine, op. cit., p. 301). 2 Raine, op. cit., pp. 298-9. 3 History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, by W. Hutchinson (1794), iii, 469. The whole description reads thus : "What remains of the manor-house, is a centre or front, and wing to the west; to the east are the ruins of several large buildings, with the remains of the ribs and groinings of an extensive vault: over an arch on the west wing, is the arms of Skirlaw; and over a gate, leading out of the yard to the granaries, the arms of Cardinal Langley. The barns or granaries, form a very long range of buildings to the west." Raine, op. cit., p. 297. According to this survey, "the buylding on th'est syde of the quadrant enclosyng the courting is all buylded of stone worke to the laying on the roufes." The existing wall is largely of stone, though considerable parts of it have been rebuilt, and nearly the whole of its eastern face has been refaced with brick. Close to its north end, H, the chamfered semicircular arch of a narrow opening appears immediately above the ground. At J, K and L are buttresses, 2 feet 1 inch in width, and I foot 2 inches in projection. If the south end of the parlour was something like in line with the north side of the hall, as seems probable, these buttresses, if they represent an original spacing, may indicate the length of 78 feet which was occupied by the parlour and the rooms immediately to the north of it. SOUTH SIDE. Two passages in William de Chambre fix the dates of the buildings which remain on this side of the court. Of bishop Skirlaw (1388-1406), he writes: "Totam etiam aulam manerii de Houldon aedificavit, et magnos praeterea sumptus in aedificiis de eodem manerio expendit." Of cardinal Langley (bishop of Durham 1406-1437), he says: "Iste autem, dum vixerat, apud manerium de Houldon construxit totas portas occidentales opere coementario, per quas transivit ad hortum vel pomarium ; et cubicula quaedam perpulchra eisdem portis adjuncta aedificavit, super quibus arma illius collocantur."2 Dealing first with the hall and its porch, the survey of 1561, in describing the buildings on "the south syde of the B. mannor house from the parler to the west," says: "The hall poynting east and west wt a highe stepe roufe and ij lovers all covered wt leade; the one a curyouse lover sore decayed is lyke to fall, and do hurte to the roufe; and the other, a playne steep lover. The walls of the hall is all buylded of stone worke, and in yt vij fayer clearstory wyndowes of freestone worke curiously made; yt cont. in lenketh, from end to hend, lxij fote, and in wyddenes xxiiij fote: at the lower end therof iij fayer skrenes . . . The glasse of all the wyndowes decayed, but well doble-crosse-barred with iron. To the nether part of every wyndowe in the sayd hall ther is a shuttinge wyndowe of waynscott very good and fayer. At the entrying into the hall on the northe syde is a porch wt a chamber over yt covered wt a flat roufe of leade of xiiij fote square." "1 Although the existing house to the east of the vicarage has been greatly altered2 and re-roofed, its main structure is that of Skirlaw's great hall. It measures internally about 62 feet by 36 feet. Its length thus agrees with that stated in the survey, but the width of 24 feet given in the survey is clearly an error. The building is faced with stone on its two disengaged sides, north and south, except a short length at the extreme east end of the north front, which has been rebuilt in brick. The moulded plinth of the porch is continued along the north front, proving that the two, porch and hall, were of the same build. The south front is divided by buttresses into four bays, with an angle buttress at each end. The westernmost bay on the north side is covered by the porch, and there are thus seven bay spaces, four on the south and three on the north, for the seven fair clearstory windows described in the survey, of which however no traces are visible. In the westernmost bay on the south side, there is a doorway, now blocked, which opened into the screens; it has a pointed arch, and is moulded externally like the inner doorway of the porch on the opposite side. The east end of the hall has been covered by a building, apparently to the full extent of its width on the ground floor, with a floor above except to its northern part. The wall of the ground floor is of stone rubble, and, as it is thicker than the wall above, it is possible that this end of the hall incorporated an older wall. In this wall, there are four moulded stone corbels, marked c on the plan. On the upper floor, towards the north end of the east wall of the hall, are traces of a blocked stone window, square-headed and of two lights. The upper part of the wall southward is of brick, and contains a small brick fireplace of later date. The survey of 1561 says that "ther is joyned to the southe est ende of the parler one house of stone worket cont. xviij fote one waye & xiij fote 1 Raine, op. cit., p. 299. 2 On my plan, I have omitted the modern openings and all the modern internal divisions of the house. 3 In the internal angle between the porch and the north front of the hall, the cornice below the parapet of the porch is worked with a return. The walls are, of course, plastered internally, and externally much of the south wall is covered with ivy. |