Embleton, County Durham

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Embleton
County Durham
Former Chapel-of-Ease, Embleton.jpg
The ruined church at Embleton
Location
Grid reference: NZ422299
Location: 54°39’45"N, 1°20’50"W
Data
Post town: Billingham
Postcode: TS22
Local Government
Council: County Durham

Embleton is a hamlet, township and former chapelry, in County Durham, as well as the site of a mediæval village and manor.[1] It is situated three miles east of Sedgefield[2] and four miles 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 mediæval 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]

Outside links

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References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Mackenzie, Eneas; Ross, Marvin (1834), An historical, topographical, and descriptive view of the county palatine of Durham, Volume 1, Mackenzie and Dent, p. 441, http://books.google.ca/books?id=0ThNAAAAMAAJ 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Whellan (1856), History, topography, and directory of the county palatine of Durham, Whittaker and co., p. 520, http://books.google.ca/books?id=vN4MAAAAYAAJ 
  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