In the days before there were villages, towns or cities, people lived in small agricultural communities.

Farms came long before towns and indeed when the monks carrying St Cuthbert's coffin settled at Durham in 995 AD there was no established town or city, but there was some agricultural development.

Simeon of Durham, an 11th Century historian records that the monks found there was already a small, cultivated plain regularly ploughed and sown by farmers.

This was the Anglo-Saxon period, but there was agricultural settlement in even earlier times. Maiden Castle, south of Elvet is a probable Iron Age fort and Celtic agriculturists will have carried out farming nearby.

At neighbouring Old Durham there was an important Roman farm. All remnants of this site have disappeared as a result of quarrying, but there is still a farm nearby called Old Durham.

A number of old farms survive in and around the city suburbs.

Often dating to medieval times, many are within view of the cathedral. It doesn't require much imagination to picture the rural Durham of centuries ago. In fact it was only in the 20th Century that Durham suburbs really started swallowing up significant agricultural land, but even this was only slight compared to the land consumed by the big industrial cities of the North.

In Durham, Gilesgate Moor, Belmont, Framwellgate Moor and Newton Hall are substantial suburbs but each is surrounded by green swathes of farm and woodland.

Until the second half of the 20th Century these suburbs were mostly farmland. In those days the housing in these "suburbs" was little more than ribbon development, concentrated along main roads and surrounded by fields.

At Gilesgate Moor, the farmland south of Sunderland Road, near Renny's Lane, was called Ravens Flatt.

Flatts were medieval field divisions and in the Middle Ages this one probably belonged to John Raven. Most of the Ravens Flatt area is now occupied by Dragonville Industrial Estate, but the Ravensflatt Farm was itself located where the outskirts of Belmont come close to the A1(M) motorway.

North of Sunderland Road was High Grange Farm, "grange" being a medieval word for an outlying farm or granary.

In County Durham, granges often belonged to the Prince Bishops or Priors of Durham. A number exist in the Durham City area.

High Grange Farm, also known as Dixon's Farm, was demolished about 1960 when the farmer W Dixon sold his land to William Leech, the developer, for about £17,000.

Leech built a housing estate here called High Grange Estate. Part of the old farm had been known to local schoolchildren as Nanny Goat Ranch and is still remembered by older residents of the city. It was a popular play area for children, providing they kept out of sight of the farmer.

Farm buildings at High Grange included a huge medieval tithe barn where grain was stored in times gone by for the payment of taxes.

Adjoining the lands of High Grange Farm to the north near the river was another medieval farm called Kepier, still surrounded by open countryside today.

Some people know this as Watson's Farm, but some older residents call it Harper's Farm. It included a large pond called Harper's Pond situated close to a peculiar, 19th Century brick building that still stands today. This building is the remnant of a kiln used by a brick and tile works.

Most of the land at Kepier is now an electricity company training ground, but those with a keen eye have observed ridge and furrow workings in the fields associated with medieval farming.

The buildings of Kepier Farm still exist and incorporate the medieval archway of Kepier Hospital. The monks who managed the hospital in medieval times extensively farmed the area.

Across the river to the north are the buildings of Frankland Farm and Frankland Park where there are fine views of the cathedral.

According to Robert Surtees, the 19th Century Durham historian, Frankland Park was a deer park belonging to the Prince Bishops of Durham, but it had long been enclosed and divided into farms, even in Surtees' time.

The name Frankland probably comes from a person by the name of Frankleyn, who was perhaps a tenant of the bishop in medieval times.

To the north of Frankland Park is Newton Hall housing estate, separated from the countryside by the railway line.

This housing estate was farmland until the later half of the 20th Century, although the grounds of a Georgian mansion called Newton Hall occupied a substantial portion of the land. The hall was demolished in 1926.

Nearby was Low Carr House Farm, now Newton Hall Community Centre and to the east is Low Newton Farm close to Frankland Prison.

Newton Grange Farm on the northern outskirts of the estate is now a hotel, but incorporates an old well inside the building that was once part of the farm.

Historic farms can be found closer to the city centre. These include the old farmhouse of Crook Hall, in Sidegate, that dates from medieval times.

Another important farm was Elvet Hall Manor, situated in Elvet. Many of its buildings can still be seen in Hallgarth Street. It was the estate farm of the Priors of Durham and was a great complex of buildings.

A number survive including tithe barns dating from the 1400s.

They are among the most remarkable medieval attractions of the city. Unfortunately they are not accessible to the public and are now used by the staff of Durham prison.

If you have memories of Durham including old photos or stories of people and places 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

Published: 05/09/2003

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.