Durham at the opening of the twentieth century : contemporary biographies.

  • Jamieson, James
Date:
1906
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Durham at the opening of the twentieth century : contemporary biographies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    episcopal chair, which he occupied for sixteen years, and was succeeded by Uchtred, at whose death, in 947, Sexhelm, a person of depraved mind, possessed the See for a few months, and, being expelled, was succeeded by Aldred, who enjoyed the See till 968, when Elfsig became its bishop. Aldune, the ninth and last Bishop of Chester-le-Street, was inducted in 990, at a very unhappy era ; for, five years afterwards, he and the whole of the religious fraternity were obliged to flee from Chester, with the remains of their tutelary saint and all their treasures and sacred relics, in order to avoid the cupidity and barbarity of their old enemies the Danes, who had again invaded the island under Sweyn, King of Denmark, and Hans, King of Norway. The bishop and his religious host fled to Ripon, in Yorkshire, where they rested till the ravagers quitted the country. SEE OF DURHAM. On their way back to Chester after the marauders had departed, they were, according to the early writers, miraculously intercepted in their progress by some invisible power at Wardenlaw, where Eadmer, one of the pious attendants, related his vision, which caused the See to be fixed at Beamish Hall, Beamish, Seat of Arthur Duncomme Shafto, J.P., D.L. Beamish Hall is a large mansion standing in well timbered grounds, situated in the parish of Stanley, or Beamish. It is a handsome building, and the estate is in pleasant contrast with much of the adjoining district, which is so largely given up to the coal industry. Durham (Dun-holme —the church on the hill), some eight miles south of Chester-le-Street. Aldune, therefore, became the first Bishop of Durham, where he died in 1018, having worn the mitre for twenty-eight years, and received many donations of land for the augmentation of the episcopal benefice. He, however, presided over the See during a very calamitous period, and resigned to the Earls of Northumberland no fewer than twenty-four villas, or villages, as an aid towards prosecuting the wars. After his death the See was vacant for three years, when Eadmund was consecrated bishop. Unlike his predecessor, Eadmund was fortunate in entering upon the episcopacy when the inveterate enemies of the Christian faith were declining. The Danes, becoming converts, now appeared as patrons and protectors of the church they had so often injured, and their king, Canute, as an atonement and expiation of the crimes of his countrymen, walked barefoot on a penitential pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Cuthbert, where he gave his mansion-house at Staindrop, with large possessions of land, to the church.