Pittington Hallgarth Conservation Area Appraisal
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Conservation Area Appraisal Design & Historic Environment Durham County Council County Hall Pittington Hallgarth Durham County Durham DH1 5UL December 2009 Tel: 0191 383 4196 Fax: 0191 383 4096 INDEX PREFACE 3 1 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Origins and Development 4 1.3 Basic Character 11 1.4 Buildings within the CA 11 1.5 Archaeological Sites 13 1.6 Views, landscapes, trees & open spaces 12 1.8 Boundaries 15 1.9 Public realm, surfaces & street furniture 15 2 A CLOSED LOOK AT THE PITTINGTON HALLGARTH CONSERVATION AREA 2.1 The principle approach & church area 17 2.2 Hallgarth Manor Hotel 22 2.3 The area to the south east of Hallgarth Manor Hotel 25 3 MANAGEMENT OF THE CONSERVATION AREA 3.1 Managing change 28 3.2 Changes to the Conservation area boundary 28 3.3 Condition of the CA 28 3.4 The planning system 29 APPENDIX A Written description of the CA Boundary 32 - 2 - PREFACE CONSERVATION AREAS AND CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISALS The Pittington Hallgarth Appraisal AND MANAGEMENT PLANS and Management plan is the latest in a line of appraisals covering the A conservation area is an area that 14 conservation areas within the is predominately historic in City of Durham District. It is spilt into character and is special or three sections. Section 1 ‘General attractive enough to warrant Character’ gives an overview of protection through the planning the area’s history and character. process. The historic centre of Section 2 ‘A Closer Look at the Durham or Barnard Castle are Pittington Hallgarth Conservation obvious examples as are many Area’ provides an in-depth look in traditional villages in the County, the form of a walk around the such as Pittington Hallgarth. conservation area. Section 3 ‘Management of the Conservation Durham County Council, as the Area’ details the planning policy local planning authority, has a background, provides planning statutory duty to preserve and guidance and suggests areas for enhance the special character of enhancement. a conservation area. It seeks to achieve this through designating PUBLIC CONSULTATION them, reviewing them, producing appraisals and management plans This document was subject to a and considering the character of a period of public consultation th st conservation area in the planning running from 9 March to the 31 process. March 2009. The local Durham County Council Member, the Parish A conservation area appraisal and council and residents of the management plan is a document conservation area received a that states what it is about a place copy of the draft document, a one that merits it being a conservation page summary and a feedback area and suggests courses of form. This was then followed up by action to maintain and enhance its talk given to Pittington Parish th character. It does so by exploring Council on the 16 June 2009. the development of an area and how that is reflected in the present; Five written responses were in its buildings, street layouts, received. These all felt that the natural areas and archaeology. It appraisal summarised the works on the principle that once character of the area well and the the special character of an area is attention paid to the village was understood then it is easier to welcomed. Various clarifications assess and formulate development were sought and further historical proposals and to ensure that they information given, which have are sympathetic and contribute to been absorbed into the final draft. the character of the area. Its target One boundary amendment was audience is anyone with an interest suggested and this is discussed with in a conservation area, be it as a section 3.2. The purpose of the talk resident, property owner, to Pittington Parish Council was to developer, planner or local better explain the purpose of the historian. conservation area and the appraisal document. - 3 - 1 GENERAL 1.2 ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS DEVELOPMENT 1.1 INTRODUCTION The original Parish of Pittington contained Sherburn, Shadforth The Parish of Pittington consists and Ludworth. In the mid C19 of the neighbouring villages of the Parish was sub-divided due Low Pittington and High to the vastly increased Pittington . High Pittington , the population that came with the larger of the two villages, growth of the mining industry. includes the small and detached hamlet of Hallgarth. Originally Pittington was divided Hallgarth is the focus of the into two settlements; the village conservation area. of North Pittington (now Low Pittington) and Pittington Pittington Hallgarth lies 3.5 miles Hallgarth which was a manorial NE of Durham at the foot of the centre of the Prior of Durham. magnesian limestone High Pittington developed escarpment. It is located on a during the 19 th and 20 th low but pronounced spur centuries as a mining village. overlooking a vale between Pittington, Littletown and There is evidence of settlement Sherburn. at Pittington from over 6000 years ago. A number of simple The conservation area was flint tools of the type used by the designated in 1981. It is a small hunter-gatherer people of the conservation area focussed on Mesolithic age have been two main buildings: the Church discovered in the parish. It is of St Laurence and Hallgarth thought that they had no Manor Hotel. In addition there permanent settlement, and are a small number of houses instead they moved through the and converted farm buildings. landscape to find the best Consequently the main land use source of food according to the in the conservation area is season. residential. Despite these very early Underlining the character of the discoveries little else is know conservation area are its roots about Pittington in prehistory. as a manor for the Prior of Although the first farmers started Durham, from which it slowly clearing their fields in the evolved largely untouched by Neolithic period (4000- 2500BC), the mining industry in the 19 th there are no remains of these and 20 th centuries. early farms. Indeed, there is no evidence from the following Bronze Age, or Iron Age. The Roman period is only represented by a few coins found near the Manor Hotel. This - 4 - does not mean that no-one agricultural and service lived in Pittington at this period, buildings. Surviving monastic just that none of the early records show considerable settlements or burials have been building activity with works to found. over thirty buildings or parts of buildings mentioned. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1530s) the main buildings appear to have been dismantled, which partly remain It is in the Anglo-Saxon period as a number of low earthworks that Pittington emerges as a within the plot between the settlement. The name Pittington entrance to the church and is Old English for the 'farm of Chestnut Lodge. Elsewhere Pitta's people'. Pitta may have remnants of medieval farm been the name of the Anglo- buildings survive within some Saxon or Northumbrian leader buildings. At Hallgarth Manor who originally founded Cottages tree-ring dating Pittington village. analysis uncovered a mid 16 th century roof structure. It is probable that Pittington Hallgarth formed part of the land contained within the original endowment of the Priory The Medieval Barn may well live of Durham Cathedral in the 10 th up to its name as the triangular to early 11 th century. A stone vent holes retained in its sundial incorporated into the conversion are indicative of a Church is thought to date from farm building belonging to the this time suggesting an early Priors of Durham. Further church and associated discoveries may await in any of settlement. the historic buildings within the site and the below-ground The earliest section of the archaeological potential of the present Church of St Laurence area has great significance. has been dated to around 1100. In 1216 a chantry chapel to the The medieval period is Virgin Mary was founded and in enduringly represented within 1258 the Priory established a Hallgarth by the Church of St manor house near to the Laurence, which is most notably Church. known for its 12 th century north arcade and wall-paintings. It is Historic records state that the also likely that the basic layout manor house was the centre of of the hamlet dates from this a farming estate. In 1550 the site time, possibly earlier. The was described as comprising number of footpaths, lanes and two back courts and a front roads converging reflects its court. The front court contained importance at the heart of a by the manorial hall, whilst the large parish. back courts contained various - 5 - Hallgarth Manor Hotel was the settlements, though importantly successor to the Priors Manor the physical distinction is house. The estate contained retained. This close relationship is about 912 acres, twenty-eight of a contrast that reinforces the which were freehold. The traditional nature of Hallgarth. Shipperdson family and Lord Limited residential development Londonderry are two names and conversion has not associated with the Hall and changed this relationship. In a estate after the medieval landscape that is both rural and period. When the hall moved industrial Hallgarth remains one from its medieval site to the of the most significant historical present location of the Hallgarth rural settlements. Manor Hotel is unclear. The present hotel is at least 18 th century in origin though a detailed exploration may well uncover further clues. The impact of coal mining from the 1830s onwards was pronounced on the parish. The surrounding landscape was transformed with the various pits of the Pittington Colliery and its associated railways and miners housing. The need for housing created Pittington Hallgarth whilst surrounding existing villages expanded.