In times gone by Framwellgate Moor was, literally, an area of empty moorland and was not enclosed into fields until the early 1800s. An open track ran through this undulating land, forming the Great North Road that in parts come to be the Front Streets of new mining villages called Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me.

The Framwellgate moorland formed the most northerly part of a rural tract of land called the Township of Framwellgate that stretched over a mile from the centre of Durham City taking in places like Dryburn and Aykley Heads.

Framwellgate Township, Framwellgate Moor and a street of medieval origin near Durham's centre simply called Framwellgate were all named from an ancient well at Crook Hall that supplied water to Durham city. Until the nineteenth century the street of Framwellgate was the northern edge of Durham's built up area. It was featured in an earlier 'Durham Memories' but we should recall that it was demolished in the 1930s and is now the site of a new housing development called Highgate below Durham railway station.

Framwellgate the street should not be confused with Framwellgate Moor, the former pit village that came into being a mile to north in the middle of the nineteenth century. As a result of Durham's continuous growth in the twentieth century this mining village and another called Pity Me now form Durham northerly outskirts and both places are now regarded as suburbs. Older residents still regard them as separate villages.

In fact Framwellgate Moor was still separated from Durham by about three-quarters of a mile of open countryside until 1940 when Dryburn Hospital was built on part of this land, followed 20 years later by County Hall.

In the early 1800s the Framwellgate Moor area was home to about 18 farms, but no major village. Farms included Woodbine Farm near Pity Me, East Moor Leazes Farm, Union Hall Farm near Brasside, Low and High Carr Houses near Newton Hall and Cater House Farm.

Cater House Farm stood until the 1960s or 70s on the western side of the Great North Road approximately where the current extension of Durham's New College is now taking place. Neighbouring farmland on this western side of Front Street belonged to Cater House and would become the site for the first terraces of Framwellgate Moor's colliery village.

Cater House was first recorded in 1564 under the name of Cadehouse and was apparently named from a one time owner called Geoffrey de Catden. According to the Victoria County History of Durham, Cater House was also known in the sixteenth century as the Scite House - pronounced with a 'sh' sound and referring to a house of dung. In 1840 Surtees, the Durham historian, described it in more idyllic fashion as "an ancient single tenement shaded by a row of tall sycamores a little to the west of the great road".

Cater House was once part of a larger farming estate called The Hagg, that belonged to the Bowes family. It was centred on Hag House Farm now just north of the present Newton Hall housing estate. Hag House sits just across the main road from a modern pub called Dunelm Ridge east of Pity Me.

In fact prior to 1564, the Hagg was part of Newton estate and by estate I mean a farmland estate located where the modern housing estate of Newton Hall stands today.

When the Hagg estate was further divided in 1567 its south west portion called Cater House came into the possession of a family called Atkinson but in the 1640s it passed through marriage to a local maltman and tanner of Framwellgate called John Richardson. We know very little about this man except that he was guilty of some kind of misdeed that deeply offended the Bishop of Durham. In fact the bishop ordered Richardson's excommunication.

When Richardson died in September 1694 he was refused interment in a Christian burial ground and had to be buried in his own orchard. When his wife died later, at Stockton, in 1690 she was buried next to him.

Despite his apparent aberrations Richardson's descendants remained in possession of the Cater House estate until the early 1800s when it was conveyed to the Reverend John Fawcett.

However the land on the immediate eastern side of the great road (Front Street) belonged to the Reverend Robert Hopper-Williamson. This side of the road saw very little development, possibly because Hopper Williamson wouldn't make land available. In Victorian times nearly all the houses in Framwellgate Moor village were on the west side of the road near Cater House. A church, a school and a pub (the Granby) were built on the east side of the street, but they were the exception. However, we must leave these sites for next week when we will look at the opening of Framwellgate Moor Colliery and the birth of the pit village.

* If you have memories of Durham 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: 03/09/2004