Sockburn Hall, Darlington: an archaeological ... - English Heritage

Figure 4. RCHME
1:2500 survey of the
Sockburn earthworks,
not to scale (after
NMR 25511)
. Historical background and previous archaeological
research
Previous archaeological research within and around the Sockburn peninsula has been
limited in extent and is easily summarised. The pre-Conquest origins of the church
and the collection of late 9th- to 11th-century sculptured stones contained within
the Conyers Chapel have excited the most attention. The church ruins were analysed
and planned by the historian and architect Charles Hodges in 1891, and examined in
slightly greater detail byW H Knowles when the chapel was restored in 1900 (Hodges
1894; Knowles 1905). Knowles’ work included the only recorded excavation within
the peninsula: a small exploration within the footprint of the church that revealed the
foundations of an earlier chancel, correctly anticipated by Hodges.
The sculptured stones gathered for safe-keeping within the restored chapel have been
the subject of several studies. Hodges produced a catalogue of the stones in 1905
(VCH 1905, 235-40), improving on less comprehensive lists included in earlier works
(Knowles 1905, 110-119; Hodges 1894,69-71; Boyle 1892, 660; Brock 1888, 179, 408-
9); but the most complete and considered study is undoubtedly that contained within
the Durham and Northumberland volumes of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Sculpture
(Cramp 1984).
In the late 1950s Ordnance Survey field
investigators reported the existence of
the earthworks and traces of wall lines
in the pasture south of the church,which
were later interpreted as a deserted
medieval village, or even a possibly
moated enclosure by authors who may
only have seen aerial photographs of
the site (NMR NZ 30 NE 1, authorities
2 and 4; Beresford and Hurst 1971).
In 1991 this same area was subject of
an extremely rapid earthwork survey
carried out by the Royal Commission
on the Historic Monuments of England
(RCHME) as part of a review of scheduled
monuments in the county (Figure 4).The
conclusions - a sketchy interpretation of
building platforms,cultivation earthworks
and garden remains - reflect the brevity of the survey and the absence of any detailed
documentary research; nonetheless,this survey provided the only graphic interpretation
of the earthworks prior to the present study (NMR RCH01/098).
ENGLISH HERITAGE Sockburn