THE Baileys are widely regarded as the best streets in Durham and are divided into two parts, called the North Bailey and South Bailey.

The two streets are not easy to distinguish and, with Saddler Street, more or less form a continuous street.

Until 1820, the Great North Gate, a massive fortified gateway that we have encountered in previous Durham Memories, separated Saddler Street and the Baileys.

The Great North Gate was only one section of the extensive medieval defences that encircled Durham City.

Defensive walls surrounded the peninsula area with a supplementary set off walls which encircled the Market Place as far as the foot of Claypath.

The walls that circled the peninsula protected the cathedral but, in many respects, they were an extension of the walls of Durham Castle, the castle being the protector of the peninsula neck.

It could be argued that the cathedral lay within the defensive walls of the castle. In fact, the entire 58 acres of the peninsula was occasionally referred to as The Castle in medieval times.

This situation may have given rise to the name of the Durham Baileys.

The word bailey usually refers to the outer wall of a castle or the courtyard enclosed by such a wall.

In Durham, the bailey takes the form of a street. In the earliest times, the residents of the bailey would have mostly included military tenants who were employed by the powerful Prince Bishops of Durham to defend the city from attack.

As the threat from Scottish invaders subsided in the 1600s, the Baileys would gradually become the most sought-after streets in the city, and most houses were rebuilt and refaced in the 18th Century with ornate Georgian doors and windows.

The Baileys came to be the home of the most famous and wealthy members of Durham society during the 18th and early-19th Centuries. Bailey residents included the Earls of Strathmore, who were ancestors of the present royal family.

Also here were the coal-owning Liddell family, whose relatives included Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.

Alice's great grandmother was a South Bailey resident. At number 24 lived Captain Boulby, who fought at Waterloo, while at number 5 lived Ignatius Bonomi, the Durham architect.

Another famous Bailey resident was Sir Robert Ker Porter, an artist to the Tsar of Russia, who married a Russian princess.

The 3ft 3in Polish Count, Joseph Borruwlaski, lived in the Bailey with the Ebdon family before he moved a short distance to a house near the river.

A notable memorial to the count can be seen in St Mary the Less Church, one of two churches in the street. The other is St Mary-le-Bow Church, so called because of its proximity to a prominent bowed gateway that once stood nearby.

The arch collapsed in 1635 and destroyed part of the church tower. The tower was rebuilt in 1702.

Perhaps the most remarkable resident of the Bailey was John Gully, a one-time champion boxer of all England. Gully had learned to fight during a period of imprisonment for debt at Bristol, where he caught the attention of a group of wealthy businessmen with a penchant for pugilism.

They paid off Gully's debts and secured his release on the proviso that he agreed to fight the then-champion English boxer Henry "The Game Chicken" Pearce.

Of course this was the age of bare-knuckle fighting, but Gully believed he had the talent and, in any case, it seemed a small price to pay for the secure of his release and payment of his debts.

In the event, The Game Chicken was the victor, but not before Gully had pushed him to a staggering 59 rounds on October 8, 1805. It is hard to imagine the physical state of these two men after the bout.

In fact, it may have proved too much for The Game Chicken, who retired shortly afterwards, leaving Gully to successfully challenge and defeat a new champion called the Lancashire Giant.

Gully clearly wished to avoid the debts of his earlier life and invested his winnings wisely and carefully. For a time, he served as MP for Pontefract and took a keen interest in racehorse ownership, winning the Derby on two occasions.

Coalmine ownership was another form of speculation in which Gully dabbled, and it was this that brought him to County Durham, where he owned mines at Trimdon, Hetton and Thornley.

His wealth was exemplified by his choice of residence in Durham's most well-to-do street. It was at number 7 North Bailey that he died at the age of 80.

He left behind a remarkable legacy of 24 children, from two successive marriages. Gully's two wives were clearly a match for him in stamina and endurance.

Gully's house no longer stands, and most of the properties in the Bailey today belong to Durham University, several being occupied by some of the university's older colleges.

The street has become something of an enclave for students and tourists, and has an air of separateness about it, even when compared with adjoining Saddler Street.

One advantage of the university's presence in the street is that it has prevented it from becoming overwhelmed by commercial concerns, so it is still possible to imagine the Durham of a more genteel age with a stroll along the Baileys.