Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/79

 58 raSTORY OP BISHOP AUCKLAND. episcopal residence long before the time of that prelate." The parcels of land in Pudsey's Charter are as follows : — — ^— iinum toftam et iiniim croftum in Alklent cum xzjg. acris terrae in campis ejusdem vill» scilicet decern acras infra Parcam et iij. acras mter fossatum veteria vivarii et zviij. acras infra Halliam inter Wer et Gawnles. This deed of gift to the Monk-Cook does not seem to have ever been acted upon; but a subsequent arrangement appears to have been made with the Convent, by which the Bishop waa again placed in possession of this portion of the Park. Raine further says, that " that portion of the ground which now constitutes so important a feature in the Park, and which, if the Cook's gift had continued in force, might, at the present day, have belonged to the Dean and Chapter of Durham ; and the lawns now graced by the deer* might have been under the plough of a lessee, or the site of a village for pitmen." Deer are mentioned in connection with the Park as early as the year 1394, and in May, 1458, the Park contained (according to Surtees's statement) one hundred bucks and does. In 1503, Bishop Sever orders "two buks of the beste" to be sent to him in the neighbourhood of York, from Auckland. In 1538, Leland speaks of " the faire parke by the CasteUe with fallow dere;" and in the survey made in 1587, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Park is represented as replenished with "fallowe dere and wild beasts." Of the original size and extent of the Park there is no record; but Old Park, now an independent estate, was originally a part of it. In the provision made for Bishop Famham upon his resignation of the See, in 1249, fuel is assigned to him from the Old Park ; and, in the year 1311, Bishop KeUawe granted to the Rector of Hurworth twelve loads of fuel from his wood of Old Park. Soon afterwards, Old Park is mentioned as the property of Richard de Kellawe, a layman and a relation of the Bishop's, in whose favour the Bishop is said to have alienated it from the See. In Bishop Hatfield's time additions to the Park seem to have been made, as we find the following in his roll of expenses in the year 1350 : — Enclosing thb Pabx. — ^To William Clerk and John his son, and to Simon de Shapp, for a stone wall to be built anew around the park of Ankland, by agreement, made in the presence of John de Sculthorp, the receiver of Durham, and Richard de Whitparys, the forester, as appears by indenture, £40. For making 340 rods of ditch axound the meadows within the park, with "rybes" (or "ryles") of my Lord's timber, to place upon the said work, by agreement, in gross, £7 lis. Sd. To a man erecting paling around the close beneath tiie hall, 16 days at times, at 2d. per day, 28. 8d. Sum £48 10s. lOd. There appears, also, to have been ponds for fish and swans, as we find the following entry in 1388, during the episcopate of Bishop Fordham : — Bepairing the ponds for my Lord's signetts, &c., 3s. 6d. In the Parliamentary Survey, made in 1646-7, we find the following description of the Park and its contents : — There is a park adjoyning, containing by estimacion, as they conceive, 500 acres. There is no timber growing therein at all fit for the repaire of tiie house or pale of the Park, but certain old dotards and ramspikes, fit only for cordwood for the hearths, being all oak. The Park was formerly enclosed, part with a dry stone wall without mortar, the rest paled, but the pales now totally ruined, and the walls much in decay. The deere and game, viz., fallow deer and wild bulls or bisons utterly destroyed, except two or three of the said bisons and some few conies in that part of the Park called the Flaggs, under the said waUs of the said Castle or Palace. The said Park is worth per annum £120. There is also belonging to the demeasnes two meadows, called by the names of Tile close and Rough mires, adjoining to Newgate end of Bps. Auckland, 30 acres, which, with the said Park, were, by the Committee of the County of Durham, let to Colonel Wren for one year, ending at May day 1647, for £120. The only historical event of any note connected with the Park has already been alluded to, viz., the encampment on the High Plain of the army, headed by the Archbishop of York, &c., on the 16th October, 1346 — ^the night previous to the Battle of Neville's Cross. Digitized by Google
 * The deer were sold at the oloee of Biahop Maltby'i epiioopateb