Today’s Object of the Week is an ice age stone in a North-East village with a remarkable backstory.

THE seemingly insignificant little village of Sadberge just off the A66 half way between Stockton and Darlington actually has one of the most extraordinary histories of any little village in the North-East.

A plaque attached to a large ice age stone on the village green – today’s Object of the Week – is a reminder of how important Sadberge once was.

It reads: “This stone was placed here to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, Empress of India, and Countess of Sadberge 1867.”

The village is the North-East’s only Viking wappentake – a kind of Viking administrative district. Later known as the Earldom of Sadberge, this district stretched from Hartlepool towards Middleton in Teesdale – but strangely the district didn’t include Darlington or Stockton.

Wappentakes were found in those parts of England settled by the Danes and continued to be important administrative centres in medieval times.The word wappentake literally means ‘weapon taking’ and refers to the way in which land was held in return for military service to a chief.

Sadberge is a name of Viking origin deriving from ‘Setberg’, meaning ‘flat topped hill’ – an accurate description of the location of the village.

Rather like many areas of the Tees Valley today, Sadberge had a rather confused sense of identity.

Although less than two miles north of the River Tees, Sadberge was never in Yorkshire and it originally wasn’t in Durham either. When those two counties began to develop Sadberge and its district was left out and because it had originally been in the Kingdom and Earldom of Northumbria it became an outlying part of the emerging county of Northumberland.

To further add to confusion Northumberland was effectively given to Scotland by King Stephen of England in 1139 so that the Tees actually became the southern boundary of the kingdom of Scotland. This situation continued for 18 years until Northumberland was repossessed for England by King Henry II.

Hugh Pudsey, Prince Bishop of Durham (1153-1195) was the man largely responsible for the decline in importance of the Sadberge district. He added the ‘earldom’ to Durham in 1189 and from then on Sadberge was ruled by Durham’s Prince Bishops.

The Earldom of Sadberge included the old parishes of Hart, Hartlepool, Greatham, Stranton, Elwick, Stainton (near Sedgefield), Elton, Long Newton, Egglescliffe, Middleton St George, Low Dinsdale, Coatham Mundeville, Coniscliffe and the baronry of Gainford in Teesdale.

Despite its fall in status, Sadberge retained a degree of independence and continued to be administered as an almost separate county until 1576.

Even as late as the 19th century there were still occasionally references to ‘the Counties of Durham and Sadberge’.

In 1836 the revenues of the Bishopric of Durham including Sadberge passed to the Crown.

Thanks to David Simpson of the England's North East website – englandsnortheast.co.uk – for his help on compiling this article.