Excerpt.... From stocktonmasonichall.co.uk/history-of-darlington/ In the Middle Ages Darlington belonged to the Bishop of Durham. In the 12th century the Bishop turned part of the settlement into a market town. In the Middle Ages there were very few shops. If you wanted to buy or sell anything you had to go to a market. The Bishop could make money by charging tolls. However Darlington was a very small town, even by the standards of the time. It probably only had a population of several hundred. It was also largely an agricultural settlement. Many of the inhabitants made their living from farming. Nevertheless there was some industry in Medieval Darlington. The main one was making wool. Wool was woven and dyed in Darlington. There was also a leather industry. Skinners lived in Skinnergate. (The street name ‘gate’ does not mean a gate in a wall it is derived from the Danish word ‘gata’ meaning street). Where does Bondgate get its name? In the Middle Ages most men were villeins or bondmen, halfway between slaves and freemen. They were tied to the land and had to spend some of their time working on the Lord’s land. When the Bishop created a market town he probably freed some of his villeins but some remained bondmen and lived in bond gata or bond street.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 14:10:43 +0000
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