Stately wapentake is still fit for a Countess

ONCE, Sadberge was master of it all surveyed - and from the top of its flat hill you can survey quite a lot.

To the east, you look over Middlesbrough practically to the sea about 20 miles away; to the west, you overlook Darlington to the Pennines, at least 20 miles away.

Some time between the departure of the Romans (420AD) and the arrival of the Normans (1066), Sadberge became a wapentake. Strictly, wapentake in Old Norse means weapon-taking or weapon-touching. In reality, then, a wapentake seems to have been the place where warriors took their weapons and clinked them together in some sort of bond or allegiance.

The village of Sadberge was the capital of the villages from which the warriors came to clink their weapons. It was, in effect, the county town of a district that stretched from Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale in the west to Hartlepool and Seaton Carew in the east.

The wapentake seems to have followed the course of the Tees, because also in Sadberge's domain were Newbiggin, Langton, Eggleston, Marwood, Cleatham, Gainford and Headlam in Teesdale.

Around Darlington, Sadberge's villages included Lower Coniscliffe, Hurworth, Neasham, Morton, Middleton (St George), West Hartburn, Long Newton, Thorpe Thewles and Butterwyck (which is near Sedgefield).

Out on what we would today consider to be Teesside, the residents of Egglescliffe, Eaglescliffe, Greatham and Dalton all came to touch weapons in Sadberge.

Sadberge was part of Northumbria, which stretched from the Humber to the Tweed. The Viking raids of the 9th Century caused Northumbria to break up but, in 883AD, when the land between the Tees and the Tyne split away from Northumbria to form a county which we know as Durham, the wapentake of Sadberge continued to be ruled by the Earl of Northumberland.

In 1075, though, the Earl treacherously joined forces with the Scots and so William the Conqueror seized all his land, including Sadberge.

As the bishops of Durham grew powerful, it rankled with them that this sliver of land along the banks of the Tees was independent.

In 1189, Richard I (the Lionheart) was desperate for cash for a crusade in the Holy Land, so Bishop Hugh Pudsey bought the wapentake from him for £11,000 (very roughly £5m in today's money).

Even though the County of Sadberge was now ruled by Durham, it still had some autonomy. It had its own assizes, for example, with its own judges who could dispense the death penalty if they so pleased.

Local legend says the cellar of the Three Tuns pub is the old jail and that a secret tunnel leads from there to Gallows Hill, on the Sedgefield side of the village, where the miscreants were hanged.

The last case heard by Sadberge Assizes was in 1457, when the rector of Romaldkirk was hauled before Judge Sir Thomas Fulthorp and accused of stealing land belonging to Henry Horn of Lartington, near Barnard Castle.

Sir Thomas gave the rector "a foul rebuke" and then the assizes were transferred to Durham City.

This marked the beginning of the end of Sadberge's importance, and Rykeneild Street, the Roman road which passed through the village having crossed the river at Middleton One Row, began to fade away, as travellers preferred the more direct route over Croft bridge to reach Durham City.

Still, we know Sadberge's jail was repaired in the 1520s and became a favourite place for Queen Elizabeth to imprison local Catholics.

A county court presided over by the Sheriff of Sadberge continued to meet in the village into the 17th Century.

The last vestiges of the wapentake of Sadberge were lost in 1836, when the Church Commissioners were set up to take charge of all of the Church of England's finances.

Money collected within Durham now went directly to the commissioners rather than to the bishop, and all titles and honours that the bishop had gathered over the centuries were given to the Crown.

In the course of this tidying up, it was found that there had once been an Earl, or Countess, of Sadberge. And so, when Victoria was crowned in 1837, she became "Queen of the United Kingdom, Empress of India and Countess of Sadberge", as is recorded on the boulder in the centre of the village.

The present Countess of Sadberge, and the last reminder of the Saxon wapentake of Sadberge, is Queen Elizabeth II.

Final word on location of the Fatty Man's Squeeze

ALTHOUGH there have been lots of fatty men who have encountered difficulties because of their girths in squeezing through tight spaces in Darlington, there is only one Fatty Man's Squeeze.

A fortnight ago, Echo Memories entertained thoughts that Fatty Man's Squeeze might have been Church Row, between the Market Place and Tubwell Row; or it could have been Doggy Lope Lane, opposite St Andrew's Church, in Haughton. Those thoughts have now been completely dismissed.

We have had calls and conversations a-plenty in pubs and through the post - there is room only to mention Reg Smith, John Lambell and RW West - and conclude that the one and only Fatty Man's Squeeze was a footpath connecting Russell Street with Weir Street.

The really squeezy bit was under a tight brick archway which was only 18in wide.

On one side was a coach repair shop (in the early 1970s it was occupied by the Solid Civil Company, a ships' tackle manufacturer) and on the other the iron railings that prevented people of any size tumbling into the River Skerne.

This area of Darlington was remodelled in the mid-1970s as the inner ring road came through, and the Squeeze was enlarged slightly and moved closer to the river. Now the shop Red Barn is by its side.

Traces of 'lost' football teams

ST Augustine's are the great lost football team of Darlington, if not the North-East.

They won the first Northern League title in 1890 and played at what was regarded as the best ground in the region, in Chesnut Grove.

In terms of football and facilities, that season they beat the two Newcastle sides who later united and are now in the European Champions League; they beat Middlesbrough, who are currently doing well in the Premiership, and they beat Darlington, who are about to move to a £20m ground.

St Augustine's, though, just disappeared after the First World War and Chesnut Grove, off Valley Street, was built upon - although a corner remained as the Darlington Arena until 1975.

We showed what we thought was the only picture of a St Augustine's team a couple of weeks ago. One of the victorious players pictured with the Cleveland Cup in 1901 was George Gillfellon, who still has descendants in Darlington.

George worked in the North Road shops and lived with his wife, Louey, in Bedford Street. He was one of four brothers who went off to fight the First World War in 1914. Only two of them returned in 1918, and his brother, John, died a week after his discharge and was buried in West Cemetery.

By contrast, George died in the 1960s, aged 92. He was an early fitness fanatic, walking everywhere right into his eighties.

Since that first article, a second picture (right) has emerged, found by Rosemary O'Riordan among newspaper cuttings belonging to her uncle, John Anwyll.

Mr Anwyll, who was born in 1870, was St Augustine's club secretary at the turn of the 20th Century. His grandfather was a stonemason who came to Darlington to build St John's Church in 1847 and liked the town so much he stayed.

John, who died in 1937, lived in Bowman Street and was the master builder responsible for Eastbourne Road and Brunton Street.

Rosemary's picture is the only one to give an idea of what Chesnut Grove, with its wooden stands, looked like.

Unfortunately, it was published in the mid-1930s in the Sports Despatch newspaper, which was printed on pink paper - which makes taking a clean photograph from the newsprint impossible.

However, it clearly shows the Saints wearing a very dark strip. They were a Roman Catholic side and are said to have played in green and white. Echo Memories had assumed this was the same light green of the famous Glasgow Celtic Catholic club, but perhaps we are wrong.

THE other lost football club of Darlington that we have been wondering about in recent weeks is Forge Albion. Paul Heaney writes from Newton Aycliffe with some answers.

It would seem that the Albion were formed in the early years of the 20th Century by apprentices at Darlington Forge, and they played in the Darlington and District League.

But the outbreak of the First World War found the town's only professional club, Darlington FC of Feethams, in severe financial crisis. The Quakers had turned professional in 1908, had a magnificent run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1910-11, and were champions of the North Eastern League in 1912-13. Their form then dipped, despite acquiring a player called Travis who scored an extraordinary 61 goals in 41 games from January 1914 to March 1915. By the summer of 1915 they were on the brink of folding.

In stepped Darlington Forge Albion, whose chairman, JB Haw, took over the name of Darlington FC, the ground of Feethams and, like present owner George Reynolds, the club's debts.

He paid the debts off and completed the building of the East Stand which, for the first time in Darlington's history, included dressing rooms.

When war was over, the footballers regrouped and it was Darlington Forge Albion who, in 1918-19, played in the Northern Victory League.

The following season the club went back to being called Darlington FC. In 1921, the Quakers became a limited company and Mr Haw became chairman. He appointed Jack English as manager and the Quakers joined the Football League - finishing second in their first season in Division Three (North).

- If you recognise any of the names on the photograph, or have any further information about St Augustine's or JB Haw of the Quakers, or any of the topics in this week's column, please write to: Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF.

Published: 09/07/2003

Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505062.