The Quykham Files

Long before the Roman Legions invaded these islands there were people living in the Tyne valley, and later when the Angles and Saxons settled in Northumbria, their wise leaders like King Oswald, Saint Aidan and the Venerable Bede brought the Christian Gospel here.

The people of these northern lands were then encouraged to have their own Christian Churches, and many of those historic buildings are still in existence, as at Monkwearmouth, Jarrow and Escomb.

It is only after the Norman conquest when Robert Curthose built the New Castle on the Tyne and the Normans began rebuilding Durham Cathedral, that we find the first mention of a place called QUYKHAM in the BOLDON BOOK. This was a survey of all land ad properties in the Diocese of Durham which was ordered by Bishop Pudsey in 1183.

The Bishop of Durham had 35 tenants in the village of QUYKHAM in 1183, and each tenure consisted of one OXGANG of 15 acres under 16 pence rent. There were many conditions to their tenancy including work they had to do for the Bishop. They had to pay jointly nine shilling for cornage, provide one milk cow, and render a hen and ten eggs for each oxgang. In the usual course of their work they laboured at the Bishop’s fisheries in the Tyne.

The first mention of the churchyard is in 1220 when a man called Baldwin gave to Gerard the son of Geve, the Steward of the Hospital of Holy Trinity in Gateshead, 17 acres in the south part of the field called Alrisburne. This charter was confirmed by Alice de Quykham and Alianor. Baldwin's daughters "reserving one toft near the churchyard of Quykham," out of which Alice and Alianor undertook to satisfy the See of Durham for one pound of pepper out of the whole tenure. One of the witnesses to the confirmation of the charter was Reginald, Vicar of Quykham.