Brancepeth

Brancepeth is an attractive village about 5 miles west of Durham, at the entrance to Weardale, in north-east England. The official history of the castle is tied very closely to that of the church of St. Brandon that stands immediately beside it; and the best summary is to be found in a little booklet available from the village post office (Brancepeth 900 (1985) by Merrington & Merrington). Which came first the church or the castle is an interesting and unanswered question.

The earliest historic reference of Brancepeth is a reference to the first rector in 1085, but a major fire in the church in 1998 revealed evidence that it had been around since before the Norman Conquest. Indeed the castle, or at least its Saxon precursor was already an important place controlled by important people (the Bulmers), as they didn't lose there estates when the Normans arrived (most of the north of England was devastated by them in an act of revenge called the "Harrying of the North", which Brancepeth possibly escaped).

There are various thoughts on the origin of the name Brancepeth, but it is unlikely that it has anything to do with the legendary monstrous wild boar, known as the Brawn of Brancepeth that is supposed to have terrorised the area at about this time. It is more likely that the legend was created to try and explain what is locally a fairly unusual name (except for the 'peth' bit, which simply means 'path' or 'road'). link

The earliest surviving stone parts of the castle probably date from the 12th century, but it was further enlarged by the Neville family in the 13th & 14th centuries, and much of this is still visible despite major 19th century restoration.

The Nevilles were a very important northern family controlling major estates as well living in Raby & Middleham Castles, were responsible for the victory of the English over the Scots at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346 and later, as earl's of Westmoreland, were heavily involved with royalty and politics in the 15th century. They lost their estates to the Crown after leading (with the earl of Northumberland) an unsuccessful catholic revolt in 1569 (the "Rising of the North").

In royal hands in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the estates became rather rundown, and they were sold to the Cole family and later in the seventeenth century the Bellasyse family. Also, in the seventeenth century, John Cosin was rector of Brancepeth, later becoming one of the more famous bishops of Durham.

In the 1770s, Bridget Bellasyse, heiress of the castle estates (or Mary Bellasyse in some sources), was involved romantically with Robert Shafto of neighbouring Whitworth Hall, and this inspired a world famous rhyming song; -

Some sources suggest that she had an obsessive love for him, but as he didn't marry her but some one with a bigger fortune, and with the mention of a baby, I get the feeling that he might have been a bit of a cad. She supposedly died in London, in 1774 of a broken heart (not by throwing herself out of one of the castle windows that face Whitworth Hall, as one of the castle ghost stories suggests).

At the very end of the 18th century the castle estates were bought by the Russell family (later Russell-Hamilton and Viscount Boyne), who became the last aristocratic owners of the castle (to date). In the 1820s, they paid for extensive refurbishment and restoration of the castle, as well as the construction of new towers, etc., under the direction of Edinburgh architect John Pattison, with later work by Anthony Salvin, creating its present form.

During the 19th century the castle had a renaissance in its importance and the Russells were visited by many famous people. Two of the most prominent were William Wordsworth (who featured Brancepeth in a long poem "The White Doe of Rylston") and Alfred Tennyson (a relative of the family, who wrote "Come into the Garden Maud" here).

Throughout this period, despite much of the surrounding area being dominated by coal mines, none were worked in Brancepeth itself; the Russells probably didn't want to spoil the view!.

Much of the 20th century history of the castle was dominated by the army, who took over the castle as a hospital during the Great War (1914-18) and later it became equally famous as the regimental HQ of the Durham Light Infantry until 1962.

After the army left it could easily have been knocked down, a number of other great houses were after the military left them. Luckily, the glass firm Pyrex/Joblings used it as a research station for about 10 years, after which it could easily have been demolished again, but was saved when the Dobson family (of Dobson Books) bought it in the mid-1970s and are still the owners today. Margaret Dobson, the current owner (and my landlady), loves the castle with a great passion, and with the help and support of her family, friends and others, she has saved the castle from almost certain destruction, and provided a wonderful cultural centre, famous for its craft fairs, concerts and outdoor theatrical performances. Also, by letting out many of the rooms, she has created an interesting community of creative and/or eccentric tenants. Besides me as an archaeologist/potter, and other artisan/craft makers, we have various musicians (mostly early and folk music), and even had a belly-dancer!

Over the last few years I have been undertaking voluntary research into the landscape history of Brancepeth under the guise of the Brancepeth Landscape History Project. My aim is to reconstruct the land-use patterns and aspects of the social and material history of Brancepeth and its immediate surroundings (including the former village of Stockley, a suburb of Brancepeth).

Although there has been archaeological and historical work carried out in the past in this area, it has concentrated on the church and castle, with little being done on the medieval and earlier landscapes. This has resulted in only a little trickle of archaeological information prior to my work. Since carrying out an extensive search of the archives for historical documents and maps, I have established considerable detail on the early post-medieval landscape. However, the thousands of pieces of flint and medieval pottery I have recovered from my fieldwalking programme of all ploughed fields (and a search of mole-hills, etc.), and through on-going analysis of this material and of the documents, maps, etc. I will be able to considerably increase our knowledge of the medieval, Romano-British and Prehistoric landscapes in this area.

It will take me a long time to complete my studies, but the highlights include; -

The discovery of thousands of early 13th century pottery sherds at nearby Scripton Gill, a probable kiln site, and the discovery of thousands more sherds of the same material about a mile away in the former East Deer Park of the castle. Medieval kiln sites are uncommon in the north of England, and currently my interpretation of these finds is that the kiln was set-up to provide pottery for a major celebration at the foundation of the Deer Park; a major status symbol at the time. I suspect that at the end of the celebration much of the pottery was broken in a display of conspicuous consumption. I have also found sherds of this pottery elsewhere in the area, so it seems some of it found its way to the local villagers.

Another interesting discovery was the recognition of a series of parallel (co-axial) major boundaries, running roughly north-west to south-east across the whole landscape. These are fairly typical of Bronze Age/Iron Age land divisions found throughout Britain and north-west Europe, but there are some interesting variations. There is one area with a section of multiple banks and ditches that make no defensive sense at all. These systems are difficult to date, but through my other work I know that they were in existence by the late 12th or early 13th century. However, and earlier date can be assumed, as at least part of this system was altered to a much more formal layout forming two similar sizes rectangles, both exactly one Roman mile wide (1618 yards) by two Roman miles long, lying between the former Roman road running through the area and the River Wear.

Additionally, I have found a number of natural flint pebble deposits (which we are not supposed to have in this region) that were used as raw material sources in the Mesolithic (& possibly earlier) probably for the making of hunting equipment (microburins and retouched notches); as well as some other flint tools from later in the prehistoric period

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