Kepier is a location in the city of

Durham, England Durham ( , locally ) is a cathedral city and civil parish in the county of County Durham, Durham, England. It is the county town and contains the headquarters of Durham County Council, the unitary authority which governs the district of Count ...

in the parish of Belmont, close to

Gilesgate Gilesgate is a street and an eastern inner suburb of Durham in County Durham, England. The street was once the main eastern route into Durham City. It runs east from the end of Claypath on the edge of Durham City centre, steeply uphill to Giles ...

and beside the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in Northern 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. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...

. It is site of the medieval Hospital of St Giles at Kepier. The name derives from 'Kipe weir', meaning a weir with a fish trap, and the convenience of being close to a source of fish (a major part of the monastic diet) may have influenced the location of the hospital. Kepier was also the site of a medieval

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

, which continued in use until its destruction by fire on September 24, 1870 caused by a spark from the grinding of the stone millwheels. The mill was never rebuilt; only a stone arch over the remnant of the

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...

remains. Kepier may also have been the site of a Roman crossing of the

carrying a postulated Roman road,

Cade's Road Cade's Road is a Roman Road in north-east England. It is named after John Cade of Durham, an 18th-century antiquarian who in 1785 proposed its existence and possible course from the Humber Estuary northwards to the River Tyne, a distance of ...

, which led north to

Pons Aelius Pons Aelius (Latin for "Aelian Bridge"), or Newcastle Roman Fort, was an auxiliary castra and small Roman settlement on Hadrian's Wall in the Roman province of Britannia Inferior (northern England), situated on the north bank of the River Tyn ...

(modern

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

). The Kepier estate previously extended over much of

Gilesgate Moor Belmont is a suburb forming the north-eastern parts of the city of Durham, England. Belmont Parish covers four old coal mining villages of Belmont, Carrville, Broomside and Gilesgate Moor, which have been joined by industrial and suburban dev ...

and

Carrville Belmont is a suburb forming the north-eastern parts of the city of Durham, England, Durham, England. Belmont Parish covers four old coal mining villages of Belmont, Carrville, Broomside and Gilesgate Moor, which have been joined by industrial ...

. In the 1940s, plans for Kepier power station were drafted, but the project was never undertaken.

References

*Meade, Dorothy M. ''Kepier Hospital''. Turnstone Ventures, 1995. *Watts, Victor. ''A Dictionary of County Durham Place-Names''. English Place-Name Society, Nottingham, 2002.

External links

North East History Pages on Kepier and Gilesgate
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061020131737/http://www.northeasthistory.co.uk/the_north_east/leisure/DURMEM250403.html Northern Echo Durham Memories article on Gilesgate and Kepier, 25/04/03br>Northern Echo Durham Memories article on medieval farming around Durham, 05/09/03
Areas of Durham, England {{Durham-geo-stub