Framwelgate (or Framwellgate) is an area of

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, England. It is adjoined by Crossgate, North End,

Framwellgate Moor Framwellgate Moor is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is situated to the north of Durham, and is adjacent to Pity Me and Newton Hall. It has a population of 5,404,

and the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through th ...

. The origin of the place-name is from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

words ''fram'' and ''wella'' together with the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

''gata'' and means street by the strongly gushing spring. It appears as ''Framwelgat'' in 1352. The 'Borough of Framwelgate' grew up following the construction of

Framwellgate Bridge Framwellgate Bridge is a mediaeval masonry arch bridge across the River Wear, in Durham, England. It is a Grade I listed building. History The bridge was built after 1400 to replace one built early in the 12th century for Ranulf Flambard, who ...

over the River Wear by Bishop Flambard in 1121. The roads Millburngate and Framwelgate became part the main route between Durham and the North. The area was home to wealthy Durham merchants and artisans until the 17th century. By the 19th century much of the area had developed into

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

housing with coal mining occurring to the north of Framwelgate. These houses were demolished during the 1930s and residents moved to the newly built

Sherburn Road Estate Sherburn may refer to: Places *Sherburn, County Durham, England ** Sherburn Hill, a separate village to the east of Sherburn **Sherburn House, a hamlet to the south-west of Sherburn **Sherburn Hospital, a medieval hospital located at Sherburn Hou ...

Gilesgate Gilesgate is a place in County Durham, England. It is situated east of the centre of Durham. It is also a ward of Durham with a total population taken at the 2011 census was 8,074. Gilesgate was originally the main street in a settlement associa ...

. Framwelgate is believed to have been named from a well at the head of the old street. This was connected to a

pant Pant may refer to: Clothing * Pants or trousers, an article of outer clothing worn on the lower half of the body * Underpants, an item of underwear Places * Pant, Denbighshire, Wales; a township of Llysfaen *Pant, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales *Pan ...

in the Market Place. An honorary Pant Master continues to be appointed to this day. Above the well the road continues as Framwellgate Peth. Framwelgate Peth continues towards Dryburn, Durham's place of execution until the construction of Durham Gaol. Saint

John Boste John Boste (c. 1544 – 24 July 1594) is a saint in the Catholic Church, and one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Life John Boste was born in Dufton, Westmorland around 1544, the son of Nicholas Boste, landowner of Dufton and Penri ...

was executed here in 1594 for being a Roman Catholic priest. While name Dryburn is popularly claimed to derive from a stream that dried up following the execution of a Jesuit or a corruption of

Tyburn Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern Ox ...

(London's place of execution),

Victor Watts Victor Watts, (18 April 1938 – 21 December 2002) was a British toponymist, medievalist, translator, and academic, specialising in English place names. He served as Master of Grey College, Durham from 1989 until his sudden death in 2002. He ...

has shown the name, deriving from the middle English for 'dry stream' was being used by at least the 14th century. A mediaeval leper hospital, St. Leonard's is believed to have been sited just south of Dryburn until its demolition in 1652/53. Prior to the 1974 local government re-organisation the

Municipal Borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

covering central Durham was styled "The City of Durham and Framwelgate".

References

*Margot Johnson. "Framwellgate" in ''Durham: Historic and University City and surrounding area''. Sixth Edition. Turnstone Ventures. 1992. . Pages 12 and 13. *Watts, Victor. ''A Dictionary of County Durham Place-Names''. English Place-Name Society, Nottingham, 2002.

External links

Northern Echo 'Durham Memories' article on Framwelgate 14 March 2003
* ttp://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=39895#s1 British History Online article on St Leonard's Hospitalbr>Durham Mining Museum entry for Durham Main Pit
(in Framwelgate). Areas of Durham, England {{Durham-geo-stub