Sadberge was a wapentake in northern England until the 16th century. Named after the village of Sadberge, the wapentake covered land now in County Durham, north of the River Tees as far west as Barnard Castle and as far east as Hartlepool. [1]
Wapentakes were found in the Danelaw, most notably the wapentakes of Yorkshire. [2] In the 12th century, the wapentake (or "Earldom") of Sadberge was a liberty of the county of Northumberland. In 1139, Northumberland and its liberties were given to the kingdom of Scotland by England's King Stephen. It was reclaimed in 1157 by Henry II. In 1189 Hugh de Puiset, the Bishop of Durham, purchased the manor and wapentake of Sadberge from Richard I for £11,000. [3] [4] The wapentake was initially administered separately from the Bishop's County Palatine of Durham, and sometimes called the "county of Sadberge", with its own sheriff, coroner and court of pleas. [3] Sadberge's institutions gradually merged with those of Durham, ending with its assizes, last held in 1576. [3] By the 14th century its area was included within two of Durham's four "wards" (subdivisions akin to the hundreds of other English counties). Prior to the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836, the county was officially called "Durham and Sadberge"; [3] a name retained for the Court of Chancery of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge until its abolition by the Courts Act 1971. [5]
Sadberge comprised several discontiguous portions: [3]
County Durham, officially simply Durham (/ˈdʌrəm/), is a ceremonial county in North East England. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne and Wear to the north, the North Sea to the east, North Yorkshire to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The largest settlement is Darlington, and the county town is the city of Durham.
In England, Wales and Ireland a county palatine or palatinate was an area ruled by a hereditary nobleman enjoying special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom. The name derives from the Latin adjective palātīnus, "relating to the palace", from the noun palātium, "palace". It thus implies the exercise of a quasi-royal prerogative within a county, that is to say, a jurisdiction ruled by an earl, the English equivalent of a count. A duchy palatine is similar but is ruled over by a duke, a nobleman of higher precedence than an earl or count.
West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland.
The Salford Hundred was one of the subdivisions of the historic county of Lancashire in Northern England (see:Hundred. Its name alludes to its judicial centre being the township of Salford. It was also known as the Royal Manor of Salford and the Salford wapentake.
The Tees Valley is a combined authority area in Northern England, around the lower River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley; the local term for the valley is Teesdale. The combined authority covers five council areas: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.
The history of County Durham.
Sadberge is a village in County Durham, England, situated between Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees. It is administered as part of the borough of Darlington.
Sedgefield is a constituency in County Durham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Paul Howell of the Conservative Party. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
They had been successive district administration in the County of Durham. The ancient county was formerly structured around the Bishop of Durham with ancient wards and boroughs.
The County Palatine of Durham was a jurisdiction in the North of England, within which the bishop of Durham had rights usually exclusive to the monarch. It developed from the Liberty of Durham, which emerged in the Anglo-Saxon period. The gradual acquisition of powers by the bishops led to Durham being recognised as a palatinate by the late thirteenth century, one of several such counties in England during the Middle Ages. The county palatine had its own government and institutions, which broadly mirrored those of the monarch and included several judicial courts. From the sixteenth century the palatine rights of the bishops were gradually reduced, and were finally abolished in 1836. The last palatine institution to survive was the court of chancery, which was abolished in 1972.
Greatham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The population of the civil parish was taken in the 2011 census was 2,132. Greatham village is located approximately three miles south of Hartlepool town centre.
The Court of Chancery of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge was a court of chancery that exercised jurisdiction within the County Palatine of Durham until it was merged into the High Court in 1972.
The Durham Act 1836 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the temporal authority of the Bishop of Durham within the County Palatine of Durham, placing the county under lay administration. Previously, since 1075, the so-called prince-bishops had substantial powers as earls "with the right to raise an army, mint his own coins, and levy taxes".
The Court of Pleas of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge, sometimes called the Court of Pleas or Common Pleas of or at Durham was a court of common pleas that exercised jurisdiction within the County Palatine of Durham until its jurisdiction was transferred to the High Court by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873. Before the transfer of its jurisdiction, this tribunal was next in importance to the Chancery of Durham. The Court of Pleas probably developed from the free court of the Bishop of Durham. The Court of Pleas was clearly visible as a distinct court, separate from the Chancery, in the thirteenth century.
The palatine courts of Durham were a set of courts that exercised jurisdiction within the County Palatine of Durham. The bishop purchased the wapentake of Sadberge in 1189, and Sadberge's initially separate institutions were eventually merged with those of the County Palatine.
Northumbria, in modern contexts, usually refers to the region of England between the Tees and Tweed, including the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham, but it may also be taken to be synonymous with North East England. The area corresponds to the rump lands of the historical Kingdom of Northumbria, which later developed into the late medieval county of Northumberland or Comitatus Northumbriae, whose original southern boundary was the River Tees. A provincial flag of Northumbria has been registered.
Claxton is a civil parish in County Durham, England. It is located to the south west of Hartlepool, and mostly separated from the neighbouring parish of Greatham by the A689 road. It had a population of 25 at the 2001 Census.
Stranton is an area of south Hartlepool in the borough of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It is a former village and parish.
The county of Durham has returned 7 MPs to the UK Parliament since 1983. Under the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, the boundaries of the historic/administrative county were significantly altered with the north-east of the county, comprising more than half the electorate, being transferred to the new metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. In addition, the borough of Hartlepool was included in the new county of Cleveland. These changes were reflected in the following redistribution of parliamentary seats which did not come into effect until the 1983 general election, resulting in a reduction in the county's representation from 16 to 7 MPs.