Didderston

Didderston, was a medieval manor located in Melsonby Parish, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It was recorded in Domesday as Dirdreston Grange,^[1] and has since been identified as being located around Diddersley Hill, and Low Grange and High Grange farms.^[2] Didderston has a long history spanning potentially from as early as 651 A.D. until the 17th century.

Saint Bede the Venerable described the death of King Oswine in 651 and wrote about a place called "Wilfaresdun, that is, Wilfar's Hill, which is almost ten miles distant from the village called Cataract towards the north-west. He himself, with only one trusty soldier, whose name was Tonhere, withdrew and lay concealed in the house of Earl Hunwald, whom he imagined to be his most assured friend. But, alas! it was otherwise; for the earl betrayed him, and Oswy, in a detestable manner, by the hands of his commander, Ethilwin, slew him..."^[3] Understanding this to describe a prominent hill located ten Roman miles (i.e. about 9 imperial miles along the old Roman road) northwest of Catterick, then we are left with one possible location for Wilfar's Hill: Diddersley Hill.^[4]

Apart from this 7th century reference to Didderston's possible history, Didderston has been well documented as a grange of Jervaulx Cistercian Abbey at least as early as the 13th century and was known to have been one of the manors belonging to Thorfin of Ravensworth, the "horse thegn to the Earl of Northumbria"^[5] during the reign of Edward the Confessor.

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