Just as no two individuals are the same, we find the same applies to villages with each having it's own character formed by past events and which in turn helps to mould the future. This history was written by yet another local resident in an attempt to tell it's readers about the history of our Parish.

PREHISTORIC TO ANGLO-SAXON PERIODS

There is evidence that men lived (in the area we now know as Sacriston ) here about two thousand years before the birth of Christ. A vicar found a flint arrow-head in his garden of the late Stone Age which ended at approximately this time. A much more interesting find was to be unearthed in 1889 whilst a grave was being dug in St Peter's churchyard. This was a rectangular burial chamber (or cist) which contained the skeleton of an adult and an earthenware drinking vessel. This cist may have been of the same period as the arrow-head but was probably of the early Bronze Age which followed the Stone Age. The drinking vessel was later badly damaged but some of the pieces where rescued and they are now in the British Museum.

Nothing definite is known of the district during the period of the Roman occupation of Britain, but with important stations at Lanchester and Cheter-le-Street it is reasonable to assume that we would have known the tread of Roman feet,(and it is believed that there was a small post on the road connecting these two places at Edmondsley).In the Anglo-Saxon period there were several settlements in the area though we have no evidence as to their size. Edmondsley,Fulforth,Plawsworth and Kimblesworth all have names of Anglo-Saxon origin and also our neighbour Witton Gilbert.

THE MIDDLE AGES

In this period the majority of the present parish was in the ancient parish of Kimblesworth which was established in 1220 and the church was in a field between kimblesworth Grange and Potter House Lane. The outlines of the foundation may be seen and it's ancient font is still in use in the present church at Kimblesworth (according to the book).For some unknown reason the church fell into decay and the parish was united with Witton Gilbert in 1593, the latter parish had been established in 1423 and prior to this it was a chapelry of the parish of St Osworld-the church of St Michael and All Angels having been built by Bishop Pudsey in the twelfth century.

Edmondsley was (until the establishment of the parish of Sacriston) part of Chester-le-Street. Fulforth,Sacriston,Heugh,Edmondsley,Plawsworth,Kimblesworth,Holemyers and Broadmyers are mentioned in Bishop Pudsey's list of his possessions(Boldon Book 1183) and it may suprise you to learn that according to a sketch map dated 1863 Nettlesworth was then called Holemyers.The name "Nettlesworth" belonged to an ancient Manor House which stood near the edge of Waldridge Fell at the botttom of the bridle road from Daisy Hill, known locally as the "five fields".In the east wall of the house was a stone like the upright of an altar-tomb with blank escutcheons within quatrefoils supported by angels. From the house there was an underground passage which surfaced near the South Burn though the purpose of this passage is'nt clear there is a theory that smugglers used to row up the Wear and follow the course of the stream to the passage. Another theory for its existence may have been to hide Roman Catholics, or as a means of escape for them during the time they where persecuted after the Reformation.

The first record we have of Nettlesworth is that in 1378 the owner was a man by the name of Thomas Gategang, then some hundred years later Nettlesworth came into the possession of the Conyers family of Horden and this, together with the fact that the neighbouring manor of Plawsworth was once owned by the Boynton family, was commemorated by the local authority when the two crescents of the new housing estate at Nettlesworth were named Conyers and Boyntons respectively.Sacriston Heugh was originally allocated to the Sacristan of Durham Cathedral by Bishop pudsey for the upkeep of his office and from it's revenues he was duty bound to feed two hundred people on St Catherine's Day by giving each person a loaf and two herrings. The building on the Heugh which was demolished a few years ago was built between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and in it's heyday must have been an interesting place.

Another interesting place in Sacriston is Lingey House Farm which was in the possession of the Darling family as long ago as 1567 when it was known as Lingey Close. At one period it was used as a resting place by the trains of pack horses carrying wool from the Yorkshire Dales to the Newcastle wool market and on the return home they carried coal from the Durham Pits. The late Alderman T.F. Brass remembered meeting, when he was a young man, an elderly farmer in Leyburn market place whose father had been engaged in this trade and had carried coals from Charlaw Colliery, staying at a house "close to the pit". Fidon Hill first came into prominence as a result of the Battle of Neville's Cross (17th October 1346) when the closing stages was fought on the hill. Until about a hundred years ago when the village began to expand, Findon Hill included all of Sacriston as far as St Peter's Schools. Apart from Lingey House there was only a few buildings to the north of the schools, the Colliery Inn and the houses adjacent to it were there and possibly such places as Darlings Buildings and the others in that vicinity.