WITTON GILBERT, pronounced Jilbert with a soft G, is two miles north-west of Durham and overlooks the valley of the River Browney.

Its nearest neighbour is Sacriston, a former mining village to the north and with 20th Century housing developments, the two villages have come close to merging.

However as local government boundaries stand in 2004, Witton Gilbert is in Durham City and Sacriston belongs to Chester-le-Street.

Witton Gilbert's next nearest neighbour is Langley Park, another former mining village across the Browney a mile to the west. Langley Park is also in a different council district, this time in Derwentside, but Langley Park's easterly outskirts are in Durham City and form part of Witton Gilbert parish.

This eastern part of Langley Park is called Wall Nook, a little village in its own right before Langley Park came into being.

It lies near the Browney and was the home of Witton Gilbert railway station. This building can still be seen, but we will leave Wall Nook for another day.

Wall Nook was in a northern corner of a walled medieval park called Beau Repaire Park, and this brings us neatly to Witton Gilbert's next nearest neighbour, the village of Bearpark, a former mining settlement, a mile to the south.

Bearpark is on the opposite side of the river to Witton Gilbert, but the ruinous medieval manor house of Beau Repaire lies on the same bank as Witton Gilbert and can be reached by a pleasant walk from Witton Gilbert church.

It is important to realise that Witton Gilbert developed as a village back in medieval times.

This fact distinguishes the village from its near neighbours because they only came into being in the 19th Century as a result of coal mining. Miners lived at Witton Gilbert, but Witton never had a colliery of its own. Some of the miners worked at Bearpark or Langley Park, but the actual Witton Pit was at Sacriston.

We could begin Witton Gilbert's story in medieval times, but that would ignore one very significant aspect of Witton Gilbert's past, namely the prehistoric finds that are frequently uncovered in the area.

In the North-East, only North Northumberland and parts of Teesdale can match Witton Gilbert for its carved Bronze Age rocks.

Several rocks with simple carved cup-like features have been found throughout the area, but two very prominent slabs have been found with mysterious cup and ring markings.

One of these was found on land belonging to Witton Hall Farm and another was found in 1995 on a Witton Gilbert field belonging to Fulforth Farm.

Subsequent excavation of the field revealed that the slab was used to cover one of two burial cists housing the cremated remains of prominent prehistoric individuals.

Carved stones and cobbles, possibly used in the formation of a cairn above the burial chambers, were also found nearby. Cup and ring markings usually date from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, and those at Witton Gilbert date from approximately 1700 BC.

Despite its wealth of prehistory, Witton Gilbert did not come into being as a settlement until Anglo-Saxon times about 2,500 years later.

Like other places called Witton, it was originally called Widu-ton meaning wood settlement, implying that it relied on the felling of wood for its livelihood.

The addition of Gilbert to the name did not occur until some time after the Norman Conquest, when French was the language of prominent landowners.

This explains the pronunciation of Gilbert, but the actual Gilbert in question could be either Gilbert de la Leia, who owned Witton in the 1100s, or Gilbert De Layton, who held land there in the following century.

The first of these Gilberts played a significant part in the history of Witton Gilbert. He was the owner of the vast Witton estate, and in those early days, it stretched from the River Browney as far north as Beamish, Stanley and Tanfield Lea. In fact, the last of these places was called Tanfield De La Leigh after Gilbert's family.

The Bishop of Durham had granted this large tract of land to Gilbert in about 1154, and in a location called Witton Field near the Browney, Gilbert established a leper hospital.

Dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, this was a religious establishment founded for the upkeep of five lepers under the jurisdiction of an almoner.

Norman chapels were built nearby and one, connected with the hospital, may have stood at St Johns Green, near the Browney, close to where the sewerage works is. However, its existence is uncertain.

Another chapel can still be seen, as it is now Witton Gilbert's parish church of St Michael and All Angels.

This church was substantially rebuilt in the 1860s, but some rounded Norman windows betray its early origins. Originally a local chapel belonging to the parish of St Oswald, in Durham City, it became a parish church in 1423 following a petition by William Batmanson and other Witton Gilbert residents.

Witton Hall Farm stands near the church. It looks like a late 18th Century farmhouse, but it incorporates masonry from the leper hospital that stood here. The most obvious remnant of the hospital is a pointed window head dating from the late 12th or early 13th Century.

The church and Witton Hall form the oldest part of Witton Gilbert village and are along a short lane running south towards the River Browney.

This part of the village predates the rest of Witton Gilbert, including Front Street, from which it is now separated by a recently built bypass road.

Nevertheless, houses existed along Front Street long before the industrial age, and Front Street includes several historic properties. We will focus on this part of Witton Gilbert in next week's Durham Memories.

I am grateful to Mr J Geddes for allowing me to view his prehistoric finds.

Published: 09/07/2004

If you have any memories of Durham City, Chester-le-Street, Derwentside or the Durham coast, including old photos or stories of people and places you would like to share with readers of The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF or email David.Simpson@nne.co.uk. All photos will be returned.