Q Close to the east side of the A1(M) motorway north of Bradbury is a small village in a hollow. Two features interest me. One is a prominent hill next to the village that stands out above the boggy land. Is it an Iron Age fort?

The other thing is a long wall that is falling into disrepair but seems to cover a wide area. - Bill Hutchinson, Chester-le-Street.

A The village you mention is Bishop Middleham, just north of Sedgefield. It was once the site of a castle belonging to the Prince Bishops of Durham and the hill you mention is a natural limestone bluff that was the site of the Medieval castle.

Two Bishops of Durham, Robert De Insula (1274-1283) and Richard Kellaw (1311-1316) favoured Bishop Middleham Castle as a residence and both died there in peaceful circumstances. De Insula was described as "a jolly monk, whose mother complained of too many servants" while Richard Kellaw's reign was troubled by Scottish raids and local robbers, whom he tried to suppress. Both bishops may take their names from places in Durham. The name De Insula means 'of the island' and it is thought he took his name from a haven of dry land called the 'Great Isle' at Bradbury. Kellaw is thought to take his name from the village of Kelloe.

Robert Surtees, the famous historian of Durham County (1779-1834) lived at Mainsforth, near Ferryhill, not far from Bishop Middleham. In 1823, he described the village as "irregularly built on two sloping limestone hills and in a hollow betwixt them". The castle stood on the southern-most of these hills. Surtees describes how the surrounding lands, forming the valley of the Skerne, were poorly drained. Many of the boggy fields were mentioned in the 14th Century survey of Bishop Hatfield. His survey mentions a park and a manor, but not a castle. Surtees suggests that the castle was a very heavily fortified manor house and "was a castle by courtesy if not by right".

Surtees states that the castle was abandoned in the late 1300s and that its parkland was sold. Masonry from the castle was used later for constructing local farm buildings. Surtees mentions that the park was of 100 acres and that the old park wall was still in perfect condition when he viewed it in 1823. It seems reasonable to assume that the wall you mention is the old park wall of the castle.

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