Warden Law
| Warden Law | |
| County Durham | |
|---|---|
 Warden Law | |
| Location | |
| Location: | 54°50’35"N, 1°25’43"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 33 |
| Post town: | Sunderland |
| Postcode: | DH5 |
| Dialling code: | 0191 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Sunderland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Houghton and Washington East |
Warden Law is a hamlet in a rural spot in the east of County Durham a mile and a half east of Houghton-le-Spring, and to the south-west of Sunderland. The 2001 census recorded a population of just 33 here, and at the 2011 Census the population remained too small to record, so details were included in the civil parish of Hetton.
There is a karting track in the village, called Karting North East and the Warden Law Kart Club are based here.
Just over the hill is a children's farm activity centre, called 'Down at the Farm'.
History and legend
The earliest reference to the village can be found in the Boldon Book of 1183, "In Warden Law there are 9 leaseholders who hold 18 bovates each of 13½ acres and pay 8d for each bovate and they work 20 days in the autumn with one man for each bovate and they harrow for 4 days with 1 horse for every 2 bovates."
15th century records of John Wessington reported on by James Raine in the 19th century appear to show the hill within the village as being the place of the epiphany of Aldhun of Durham, the place where Aldhun claimed to have received a vision from Saint Cuthbert saying that the saint's remains should be laid to rest at Durham.
A company of monks for many years traversed the north carrying with them the body of Saint Cuthbert in its elaborate wooden coffin shrine. According to legend, one day while Bishop Aldhun led the party the cart carrying Cuthbert suddenly stopped at Wrdlau and refused to move. All their efforts to free the cart over the next three days were to no avail. During that time, one of the monks, Eadmer, had a vision in which it was revealed to him that Cuthbert's shrine had to be taken to a place called 'Dunholme', but when he shared this information with the rest of the monks, nobody knew where 'Dunholme' was. Soon afterwards, two maidens passed the place where the cart was stuck, and one happened to ask the other if she had seen her lost dun cow. She replied that she had seen the cow at Dunholme. As the monks set off in the direction the maidens had shown them, the cart could be moved easily and it was not long before the company of St Cuthbert arrived at a hill surrounded by a great loop of the River Wear, and here they halted, in what became the City of Durham.
Cuthbert's remains were interred at Durham and a monastic foundation was built here by Aldhun to house the shrine of St Cuthbert. Aldhun was the last Bishop of Lindisfarne (whose seat had been at Chester-le-Street) and, according to legend as a result of his vision at Warden Law, the first Bishop of Durham.