St Oswald's Parish, County Durham,

The ancient parish of St. Oswald lay around three sides of the city of Durham and occupied all the right bank of the Wear, the boundary following the course of the river from Blackdene Burn southwards as far as Pelaw Wood Beck, from the top of which it mounted the moor, skirted Shirburn House and then, after making a great loop eastwards, regained the Wear. It thus included the modern districts of Finchale, Framwellgate and Framwellgate Moor, Broom, Neville's Cross, Crossgate, Old and New Elvet, Old Durham, Shincliffe, Croxdale and Sunderland Bridge. At an early date part of the parish was assigned to the chapelry of St. Margaret, which obtained parochial rights in the 15th century. From this time St. Oswald's included the settlements of Old Durham, Houghall, Burn Hall, Relley, Broom, Shincliffe, Butterby, Croxdale and Sunderland Bridge, while St. Margaret's served Crossgate, Neville's Cross, the Bellasis, Framwellgate, Sidgate and Crookhall, Aykley Heads, Framwellgate Moor, Dryburn, Windy Hills, Hag House, Cater House, Newton by Durham, Frankland and Harber House. With the growth of population, however, the arrangement has undergone considerable change.

The civil parishes have experienced some modification under the provisions of the Local Government Act of 1894. (fn. 5) Neville's Cross was then formed from Crossgate and Framwellgate from the portion of Framwellgate within the borough of Durham. In 1895 a part of the civil parish of Bearpark was attached to the parish of St. Oswald, while ten years later the boundary of the borough was extended to in clude part of the civil parish of Framwellgate Moor. As constituted in 1898 the civil parish of Framwellgate contained 148 acres, Framwellgate Moor 3,801 acres, Neville's Cross 429 acres, Crossgate 74 acres, Elvet 256 acres, Shincliffe 1,377 acres, Sunderland Bridge 1,438 acres, Broom 1,076 acres and St. Oswald itself 2,227 acres.

Extract from: 'Parishes: St Oswald's - Introduction', in A History of the County of Durham: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1928), pp. 144-157. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/durham/vol3/pp144-157 [accessed 4 June 2019].