Little is known of Lanchester's transition from Roman fort to medieval village. The Roman fort of Longovicium had fallen out of use by 400 AD when most Romans had returned to the continent.

Anglo-Saxons from northern Europe arrived in their place establishing Lanchester village to the north east of the fort. Initially pagan, the Anglo-Saxons adopted Christianity and may have built a church in the village.

It probably stood at the heart of an important Anglo-Saxon estate. Symeon of Durham, a later Norman historian claimed that monks carrying St Cuthbert's tomb rested one night at Lanchester during the Anglo-Saxon era and this might partly account for Lanchester's importance. Apart from numerous place-names, traces of Anglo-Saxon settlement are hard to find.

However in 1861 a hoard of 18 Anglo-Saxon iron objects including a sword, knife, blades and tools were discovered by an angler, buried in the Smallhope Burn, a mile and a half west of Lanchester near the hamlet of Hurbuck. Dating from the ninth or tenth century, the finds can be seen in London's British Museum and are one of Britain's most important Dark Age hoards.

More is known of Lanchester after the Norman Conquest. In 1183 it was mentioned in the Bishop of Durham's Boldon Book when Ulf, Meldred, Ulkil and the wife of Galfrid Personis were Lanchester's principal landowners.

Lanchester's beautiful parish church was built in 1147 and is one of the finest medieval churches in the county. It is dedicated to All Saints, but until the late nineteenth century it was the church of St Mary the Virgin.

A white-faced clock on the Norman tower dates from 1902 and replaced an earlier black-faced clock of 1716. Wooden pews by Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson were added to the church in 1939.

Lanchester was one of the largest medieval parishes in Durham, encompassing extensive lands between the Rivers Derwent and Deerness. Parish administration and management was undertaken by a Dean based at the Deanery near the church.

However, by the nineteenth century, population growth in Durham caused Lanchester parish to be broken up into several new parishes.

For centuries Lanchester was a quiet rural oasis with trickling burns and mills, surrounded by what was then well-wooded countryside and rolling hills. There would of course be occasional disruptions.

In the early 1300s Edward I and Edward II punctured the peace when they marched with their armies through the village during their Scottish campaigns. More worryingly in 1346 David, the Scottish King, came this way with his army prior to his defeat at the Battle of Nevilles Cross.

Lanchester residents may have kept well away but there was no escape from the ravages of the plague that hit the village two years later. It would visit again in 1500, 1579 and 1665.

Lanchester's Manor House called Maydenstanhall stood half a mile south west of the village centre where Manor House Farm stands today. In Medieval times it belonged to the Prior of Hexham, but later passed to the Hodgsons and Stevensons.

For a time it belonged to a London banker called David Bevan but had already been demolished and replaced with Manor Farm when Surtees, the Durham historian, mentioned it in the early nineteenth century.

The River Browney meanders its way towards Durham half a mile south of the village, but Lanchester is really located in the valley of its tributary, the Smallhope Burn.

A hump-backed bridge once crossed this stream on the edge of the village green in the centre of Lanchester linking Front Street with the road to Durham. Near this bridge a smaller stream called Alderdene Burn joined the Smallhope after rather inconveniently flowing along the length of Front Street.

In times gone by, the two streams were the most significant natural features of the village, but it is easy to miss them today. Both now flow in culverts through the village.

A culvert was built for the Alderdene Burn in 1904 and culverts for the Smallhope Burn were added in 1937. The Smallhope Burn had cut through the western side of the village green but was diverted to the east and the old course filled in, thus increasing the size of the green. The old humped-back bridge and two other rustic looking bridges have also long since gone.

The village Green has long been a feature of Lanchester's landscape. In 1575 it was recorded as the site of the village stocks, a constant reminder to misbehaving locals. The stocks were still there in 1758 when 1s 2d was paid for their repair. In centuries past the green may have sheltered livestock but in 1898 it caused much amusement when a sign was erected declaring "No donkeys allowed on green except for parish councillors".

The main road from Durham to Shotley Bridge did not come to pass through Lanchester until 1810 when a turnpike road was built through the Lanchester valley replacing what Surtees described as a circuitous route through the heights.

The new road followed the course of what is now the A691 from Durham until reaching Lanchester where it formed a track straight through the centre of the village green. It then continued straight up Lanchester's Front Street.

All this changed in the early 1970s with the construction of a new bypass that takes the A691 along the western edge of the green. The road across the green ran close to where the war memorial now stands and its removal made the green bigger than ever. The creation of the bypass also made Front Street a much safer and more pleasing place to walk.

We will continue our look at Lanchester in next week's Durham Memories

If you have Durham memories you would like to share with The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. E-mail David.Simpson@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505098

Published: 23/04/2004