Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/217

 190 HISTORY OP BISHOP AUCKLAND. 1800. — Feb. 4. — ^Thomas Wilkinson^ of Binchestery son of Thomas Wilkinson, Esq., and Mary Jane, his wife, late Lyon. — [Buried.] Binchester ultimately became the property of the late Charles Lyon, Esq., who was its last resident. Owing to some family dispute the estates were thrown into Chancery, and in May, 1817, the farms called Binchester Whins, Binchester Cragg, and Newton Cap Flatts, were advertised for sale, and the estate itself was advertised in June, 1829. The owner having proposed, and conmienced, sinking a coal pit in close proximity to the Palace at Auckland (greatly to the annoyance of Van Mildert, who was then Bishop of Durham), overtures were made to the trustees for its purchase. The offer was favourably received, and the trustees allowed three years to make the necessary arrangements. Application was accordingly made for an Act of Parliament to enable the Bishop to enfranchise property, in order to raise a sum of money for the purchase of Binchester ; but, alarmed at the precedent of selling Church property. Lord Shaftesbury opposed the measure, which would have been thrown out but for the interference of the late Earl of Eldon, through whose influence the Binchester Estates' Act, 7 and 8 Greo. IV., was at last obtained. Under the powers of this Act, £63,027 16a 4d. was raised and paid into Court, of which £54,535 was invested in the purchase of lands and tithes at Binchester and other parts of the parish of St Andrew's Auckland. The costs of obtaining the Act, attending sales under it, and the laying out of money in Exchequer Bills, amounted to £4,605 19s. 4d. To the remaining balance, £3,886 17s. Od., a further sum of £499 58. 9d. was afterwards paid in to the credit of the same account, being the produce of the sale of the materials of the Hall, and which the Bishop was specially authorised by the Act to dispose of ; the purchase monies being directed to be paid and applied in the same manner, and under the same provisions, as were expressed concerning the monies to be produced by the sale of the hereditaments by the Act vested in trust for sale. The amount was invested in Exchequer Bills, the principal and interest of which were to accu- mulate until the original sums raised under the Act had been realised and applied in the purchase of land, when the surplus, whatever that might be, would be payable either wholly to the Bishop for the time being, or subject to apportionment between him and the personal representatives of his predecessor. During the above transactions, Binchester Hall remained unoccupied (Charles Lyon, Esq., its last occupant, and his wife having gone to London to reside), and on their conclusion it was pulled down, and the materials all sold, much to the regret of the inhabitants of the whole neighbourhood. A portion of the stones and timber was bought by Mr. West, who was at that time erecting the gas works at Auckland, and a great portion of the older part of that establish- ment was built with them. On the Sunday previous to the commencement of the pulling down of the HaU, it was thrown open to the public, when it was literally overrun with people, who speedily commenced the work of spoliation by breaking off ornaments from the chimney-pieces and cornices, and carrying them away as remembrancers of the old place. And now the lofty hill, which was once a stronghold of the Eomans, and on the summit of which in more modem times stood Binchester HaU, is occupied by a humble farmstead. ERRATA. Page 56, line 1 — " For the two valleys,*' read " By the two valleyB." Page 142. — ^Addison's Charity. — The sum mentioned, £11 19s. Od., is the interest of the sum handed over, and not the sum itself. Page 152. — Independent Chapel. — ^Line 4, for ''deceptions" read "discipline." Page 156.— Mechanics' Institute.— Line 23, for " 12,000 vols." read " 1,200 vols." Digitized by Google