Sockburn Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Sockburn.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Darlington.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ35030705
Latitude 54.45768° Longitude -1.46137°

Sockburn Castle has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Earthworks of a Medieval moated manor house and associated structures or possible deserted Medieval village and post-Medieval formal garden. No surviving remains of a castle are visible. Palatinate licence to crenellate granted to Sir Christopher Conyers in 1470.

Leland describes it thus: 'the eldest house of the Coniers with the demains about it of a mile cumpace of exceding pleasaunt ground, is almost made an isle, as Tese ryver windeth about it.' 'At a little distance below the maner-place,' he adds, 'is a grete were for fish. (VCH, 1914, Ref. Toulmin-Smith)

An inquisition taken in 1431, following the death of Robert Conyers, describes a manor house containing a hall and a chamber, as well as a granary, stable and dovecote. Also belonging to the manor were 'three orchards, three cottages, with their gardens' worth 30 shillings per annum; a watermill worth 100 shillings; the milne-halgh, 40 shillings; an enclosed wood called Thirstandale of 10 acres worth three shillings and sixpence, and 100 acres each of arable and meadow valued together at £4 13s 4d (Cursitors Records 1884: 180). (Went and Jecock, 2007)

A Durham Palatinate licence to crenellate was granted in 1470 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Comments

Sockburn was granted to the Coyners soon after the Norman Conquest apparent for the service of killing a 'monstrous and poysonous vermine or wyverne, and aske or werme'. The Conyers were an important local baronial family with many military duties such as constable of Durham Castle. Another of their manors was Bishopton where they built a motte and bailey. This prime manor of theirs must have been fortified from an early date (but not necessarily with a motte). However, because this was the family caput the site seems to have been rebuilt many time and nothing now remains that is clearly a fortification. The 1470 licence probably represents one of these many rebuildings. As with all licences it should not be taken as an intent to build a major fortification but as as a special honorific for a fairly standard great house with some domestic defences and martial decorations. It is probably that some parts of even this C15 house were of timber and earlier halls on the site are even more likely to have been timber with only some few buildings or parts of buildings in stone. The earthworks to the south and west of All Saints church are complex and represent at least two Halls on different sites with the standing Sockburn Hall representing a third site.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 25511.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D175.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- English Heritage Archaeological Field Survey
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 56
  Jackson, M.J., 1996, Castles of Durham and Cleveland (Carlisle)
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 160
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 139 (possible)
  Hugill, Robert, 1979, The Castles and Towers of the County of Durham (Newcastle; Frank Graham) p. 92-93
  Beresford, Maurice and Hurst, John G. (eds), 1971, Deserted medieval villages: studies (Lutterworth Press) p. 187
  Page, Wm (ed), 1914, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 1 p. 449 online transcription
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 3 (London) p. 297-300 online copy
  Surtees, R., 1823, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham Vol. 3 (Durham) p. 243-6 online transcription
  Brayley, E. and Britton, J., 1803, Beauties of England and Wales; Durham Vol. 5 p. 94
Periodical Articles
- English Heritage, 2008, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 52 view ADS page
  Mason, David, 2008, 'Sockburn Hall A recent archaeological survey' Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland Newsletter No. 9 p. 1-3 online copy
  Austin, D., 1972, Council for British Archaeology Group 3: Archaeological newsbulletin for Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland p. 10
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- 1874 The Thirty-fifth Annual Report of Deputy Keeper of the Public Record App. 97 (membrane 3 of Calendar of Rolls of Bishop Booth)
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 147
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 69 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Went, D. and Jecock, M., 2007, Sockburn Hall, Darlington: An archaeological investigation of the medieval and post-medieval manors and the setting of the pre-Conquest church (82-2007. English Heritage Research Department: Portsmouth) online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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