The history of County Durham.

Roman and pre-Roman Remains of Prehistoric Durham;As to prehistoric Durham, see further Pocock and Norris, "Prehistoric Durham", A History of County Durham, Phillimore, 1990, chapter 2, p 14; Greenwell, "Early Man", Victoria County History, 1905, vol 1, W Boyd Dawkins, "Notes on Durham, York and Manchester in Prehistoric Times: Prehistoric Durham, York and Manchester" (1909) 66 The Archaeological Journal 171; Rosemary Annable, The Later Prehistory of Northern England: Cumbria, Northumberland, and Durham from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age, BAR British Series 160(1), 160(ii) and 160(iii), 1987, Parts, ii and iii; Robert Young, Lithics and Subsistence in North-eastern England: Aspects of the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Wear Valley, Co Durham, from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age, include a number of Neolithic earthworks.

The Crawley Edge Cairns and Heathery Burn Cave are Bronze Age sites. Maiden Castle, Durham is an Iron Age site.

Brigantia, the land of the Brigantes, is said to have included what is now County Durham.Mortimer Wheeler, "The Brigantian Fortifications at Stanwyck, Yorkshire" in Mitford (ed), Recent Archaeological Excavations in Britain, 1956, Routledge, 2015, Chapter 3, p 43 at p 55. Cf. D W Harding, "Brigantia and northern England", The Iron Age in Northern Britain, Routledge, 2004, Chapter 2, p 23

There are archaeological remains of Roman Durham.As to Roman Durham, see further Boyle, "Durham in Roman Times", 1892, p 66; J A Petch, "Roman Durham" (1925) 1 Archaeologia Aeliana (Fourth Series) 1; K A Steer, The Archaeology of Roman Durham, University of Durham, 1938; Eric Birley, "Roman Durham" (1954) 111 The Archaeological Journal 194; Brian Dobson, "Roman Durham" (1970) 2 Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland (New Series) 31; Brian Dobson, "The Roman Period" in J C Dewdney (ed), Durham County and City with Teesside, 1970, p 195; Frank Graham, Roman Durham, (Northern History booklet No 85), 1979; Pocock and Norris, "Roman Durham", A History of County Durham, 1990, p 18; and D J P Mason, Roman County Durham: The Eastern Hinterland of Hadrian's Wall, 2021. Dere Street and Cade's Road run through what is now County Durham. There were Roman forts at Concangis (Chester-le-Street), Lavatrae (Bowes), Longovicium (Lanchester), Piercebridge (Morbium), Vindomora (Ebchester) and Vinovium (Binchester). (The Roman fort at Arbeia (South Shields) is within the former boundaries of County Durham.) A Romanised farmstead has been excavated at Old Durham.

Anglo-Saxon Remains of the Anglo-Saxon periodAs to the Anglo-Saxon period, see Rosemary J Cramp, "The Anglo Saxon Period" in J C Dewdney (ed), Durham County and City with Teesside, 1970, pp 199 to 206; Charles C Hodges, "Anglo Saxon Remains", Victoria County History, 1905, vol 1, pp 211 to 240; Rosemary J Cramp, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture: Durham and Northumberland, British Academy, 1984, vol 1. As to the Early Medieval period, see Pocock and Norris, "Early Middle Ages and County Durham", A History of County Durham, Phillimore, 1990, chapter 4, p 22. include a number of sculpted stones and sundials,Charles C Hodges, "Anglo Saxon Remains", Victoria County History, 1905, vol 1, pp 211 to 240 the Legs Cross, the Rey Cross and St Cuthbert's coffin.

Anglian Kingdom of Bernicia

Around AD 547, an Angle named Ida founded the kingdom of Bernicia after spotting the defensive potential of a large rock at Bamburgh, upon which many a fortification was thenceforth built. Ida was able to forge, hold and consolidate the kingdom; although the native British tried to take back their land, the Angles triumphed and the kingdom endured.

Kingdom of Northumbria

In AD 604, Ida's grandson Æthelfrith forcibly merged Bernicia (ruled from Bamburgh) and Deira (ruled from York, which was known as Eforwic at the time) to create the Kingdom of Northumbria. In time, the realm was expanded, primarily through warfare and conquest; at its height, the kingdom stretched from the River Humber (from which the kingdom drew its name) to the Forth. Eventually, factional fighting and the rejuvenated strength of neighbouring kingdoms, most notably Mercia, led to Northumbria's decline. The arrival of the Vikings hastened this decline, and the Scandinavian raiders eventually claimed the Deiran part of the kingdom in AD 867 (which became Jórvík). The land that would become County Durham now sat on the border with the Great Heathen Army, a border which today still (albeit with some adjustments over the years) forms the boundaries between Yorkshire and County Durham.

Despite their success south of the river Tees, the Vikings never fully conquered the Bernician part of Northumbria, despite the many raids they had carried out on the kingdom. However, Viking control over the Danelaw, the central belt of Anglo-Saxon territory, resulted in Northumbria becoming isolated from the rest of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Scots invasions in the north pushed the kingdom's northern boundary back to the River Tweed, and the kingdom found itself reduced to a dependent earldom, its boundaries very close to those of modern-day Northumberland and County Durham. The kingdom was annexed into England in AD 954.

City of Durham founded

In AD 995, St Cuthbert's community, who had been transporting Cuthbert's remains around, partly in an attempt to avoid them falling into the hands of Viking raiders, settled at Dunholm (Durham) on a site that was defensively favourable due to the horseshoe-like path of the River Wear. St Cuthbert's remains were placed in a shrine in the White Church, which was originally a wooden structure but was eventually fortified into a stone building.

Once the City of Durham had been founded, the Bishops of Durham gradually acquired the lands that would become County Durham. Bishop Aldhun began this process by procuring land in the Tees and Wear valleys, including Norton, Stockton, Escomb and Aucklandshire in 1018. In 1031, King Canute gave Staindrop to the Bishops. This territory continued to expand, and was eventually given the status of a liberty. Under the control of the Bishops of Durham, the land had various names: the "Liberty of Durham", "Liberty of St Cuthbert's Land" "the lands of St Cuthbert between Tyne and Tees" or "the Liberty of Haliwerfolc" (holy Wear folk).

The bishops' special jurisdiction rested on claims that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had granted a substantial territory to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684. In about 883 a cathedral housing the saint's remains was established at Chester-le-Street and Guthfrith, King of York granted the community of St Cuthbert the area between the Tyne and the Wear, before the community reached its final destination in 995, in Durham.

Following the Norman invasion, the administrative machinery of government extended only slowly into northern England. Northumberland's first recorded Sheriff was Gilebert from 1076 until 1080 and a 12th-century record records Durham regarded as within the shire. However the bishops disputed the authority of the sheriff of Northumberland and his officials, despite the second sheriff for example being the reputed slayer of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots. The crown regarded Durham as falling within Northumberland until the late thirteenth century.

Norman and Anglo-Norman Following the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror appointed Copsig as Earl of Northumbria, thereby bringing what would become County Durham under Copsig's control. Copsig was, just a few weeks later, killed in Newburn. Having already being previously offended by the appointment of a non-Northumbrian as Bishop of Durham in 1042, the people of the region became increasingly rebellious. In response, in January 1069, William despatched a large Norman army, under the command of Robert de Comines, to Durham City. The army, believed to consist of 700 cavalry (about one-third of the number of Norman knights who had participated in the Battle of Hastings), entered the city, whereupon they were attacked, and defeated, by a Northumbrian assault force. The Northumbrians wiped out the entire Norman army, including Comines, all except for one survivor, who was allowed to take the news of this defeat back.

Following the Norman slaughter at the hands of the Northumbrians, resistance to Norman rule spread throughout Northern England, including a similar uprising in York. William The Conqueror subsequently (and successfully) attempted to halt the northern rebellions by unleashing the notorious Harrying of the North (1069–1070). Because William's main focus during the harrying was on Yorkshire, County Durham was largely spared the Harrying.Douglas, D.C. William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact Upon England

Anglo-Norman Durham refers to the Anglo-Norman period,As to Anglo-Norman Durham, see Rollason, Harvey and Prestwich (eds), Anglo-Norman Durham: 1093-1193, Boydell Press, 1994; Aird, St Cuthbert and the Normans, Boydell Press, 1998; Pocock, "Anglo-Norman Durham", The Story of Durham, 2013, chapter 2; "Anglo-Norman Durham: 1093-1193" (1992) 2 Medieval History; Rozier, "Compiling Chronicles in Anglo-Norman Durham" (2019) 42 Anglo-Norman Studies 119. during which Durham Cathedral was built.Dalton, Insley and Wilkinson. Cathedrals, Communities and Conflict in the Anglo-Norman World. 2011. pp 11 & 12

County Palatine of Durham

Matters regarding the bishopric of Durham came to a head in 1293 when the bishop and his steward failed to attend proceedings of quo warranto held by the justices of Northumberland. The bishop's case went before parliament, where he stated that Durham lay outside the bounds of any English shire and that "from time immemorial it had been widely known that the sheriff of Northumberland was not sheriff of Durham nor entered within that liberty as sheriff. . . nor made there proclamations or attachments". The arguments appear to have prevailed, as by the fourteenth century Durham was accepted as a liberty which received royal mandates direct. In effect it was a private shire, with the bishop appointing his own sheriff. The area eventually became known as the "County Palatine of Durham".

Sadberge was a liberty, sometimes referred to as a county, within Northumberland. In 1189 it was purchased for the see but continued with a separate sheriff, coroner and court of pleas. In the 14th century Sadberge was included in Stockton ward and was itself divided into two wards. The division into the four wards of Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Easington and Stockton existed in the 13th century, each ward having its own coroner and a three-weekly court corresponding to the hundred court. The diocese was divided into the archdeaconries of Durham and Northumberland. The former is mentioned in 1072, and in 1291 included the deaneries of Chester-le-Street, Auckland, Lanchester and Darlington.

The term palatinus is applied to the bishop in 1293, and from the 13th century onwards the bishops frequently claimed the same rights in their lands as the king enjoyed in his kingdom.

Early administration Boundaries, exclaves and population