Embleton, County Durham

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The ruined church in Embleton.

Embleton is a hamlet, township and former chapelry, in County Durham, in England, as well as the site of a medieval village and manor.[1] It is situated 3 miles (5 km) east of Sedgefield[2] and 4 miles (6 km) west of Hartlepool. The township was historically named "Elmdene", supposedly derived from the site's proximity to a woodland of elm trees which, at an earlier time, flourished in the bordering dene. A single farmstead now occupies the site which lies adjacent to the ruins of a small church (originally a manorial chapel of ease) dedicated to the Virgin Mary.[2]

From the 13th to the mid 16th century the manor was the seat of the Elmeden family who assumed the local name.[1] The village was one of nearly 1,500 medieval villages to be abandoned in the 14th century after the collapse of the demesne system of land management.[3] It afterwards passed in the female line to the Bulmers and Smythes and in the 18th century to the Tempests of Wynyard, ancestors of the Marquesses of Londonderry.[4]

Embleton Tower is a Grade I listed Peel tower in the village, which previously incorporated the vicarage.

References[]

  1. ^ a b Mackenzie, Eneas; Ross, Marvin (1834), An historical, topographical, and descriptive view of the county palatine of Durham, Volume 1, Mackenzie and Dent, p. 441
  2. ^ a b Whellan (1856), History, topography, and directory of the county palatine of Durham, Whittaker and co., p. 520
  3. ^ Hodgett, Gerald, (2006) A Social and Economic History of Medieval Europe, Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-37707-2, p.206.
  4. ^ Robert Surtees, History of Durham, Vol.III, p.53

Further reading[]

Coordinates: 54°39.7′N 1°20.7′W / 54.6617°N 1.3450°W / 54.6617; -1.3450


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