Eggleston is a village in
County Durham
County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
, in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The population of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
taken at the 2011 Census was 448. It is in the
Teesdale, a few miles north-west of
Barnard Castle
Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit ...
.
Etymology
The second element of ''Eggleston'' is
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
''tün'', 'enclosure, estate, settlement'. The first element could be the
Cumbric
Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...
word represented today by Welsh ''eglwys'' 'church'. However, the first element could also be from the Old Norse personal name ''Egill'' or an Anglo-Saxon personal name like ''Ecgwulf'' or ''Ecgel'', in which case the name means 'Ecgel's estate'.
Local lore notes the presence of a large stone (near
Eggleston Hall) with iron eyelets affixed. The story is that eagles to be used in
falconry
Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...
, while in training, were tied to the stone with long leads. According to local knowledge the stone long ago was known as the Eagle Stone which over the centuries evolved into current place name Eggleston.
History
The village is first mentioned in tax records of 1196. The remains of ridge and furrow from the medieval period can still be seen. One of the oldest structures in the village is Eggleston Bridge, which crosses into the neighbouring village of
Romaldkirk. The bridge dates to the 15th century but was mostly rebuilt in the 17th century. It originally featured a chapel at the south end. Many of the cottages date from the 18th century and were built by the
Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
, who owned lead mines in the area. Forty men were employed as miners until 1904 when the company closed the smelting mills.
See also
*
Egglestone Abbey
References
External links
Villages in County Durham
{{Durham-geo-stub