To bring the expenses of the byegone days into perspective. some prices quoted from the Abbey records of 1316 may be of interest;- 16 oxen, £16 1 horse,46 shillings and eightpence (£2.33p), a chicken or duck 1½d. (0.66p), 18 herring 2d. (less than 1p) and 1 doz eggs 1d. (less than ½p). This will give you an insight into the following piece of history.

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The stone-masons who built the house would have been paid about Two Shillings and Sixpence a week and would have lived in temporary shelters or in the ancient village of Witton Gilbert. In those days stone-masons lived wherever their work took them and were the equivalent of the of the modern construction engineer.

In the 15th century the house was retained, but the estate was "let". In 1421 the estate was leased to Hugh Bonet, a merchant of Durham; Nicholas Hayford, a Draper; and William Aldingshell, Spicer of Durham- at a yearly rental of seven marks (£4.62p). In the 16th century, Leornard Temperley a retired soldier lived in the house on the hill and after his death in 1577 his last Will and Testament revealed some interesting prices operating in those days-a cow £1-6-8d. (£1.33p)-one cow and three pigs 5 shillings (25p) one gander, two ducks and a drake-2 shillings and eightpence (13½p).

After the dissolution of the Monastery at Durham Cathedral the estate was granted to the Dean and chapter in 1541. Early in the 19th century , the income from the estate formed part of the salary of the Canon or Prebend of the third stall of the Cathedral. When the leases were issued to sink the collieries at Charlaw, Acorn Close and Sacriston (in 1838-9), a map of the district was sent showing the area of the mineral rights to be mined. The map revealed onlt two houses -Liney Close and the House on the Heugh, which by that time was known simply as Sacriston and the said houses were in the parish of Witton Gilbert.

Some time after the formation of the Charlaw and Sacriston Coal Company, the said company aquired the estate on the Heugh and an old News cutting reveals the fact that at one time the Colliery Company farmed 1,100 acres in the vicinity of it's coal mines. This acreage would proberly include the farm on the Heugh, Fulforth farm (Bell's), Cote Hill farm (Smiths) and maybe Broom House farm, on the crest of the Charlaw escarpment- to the west. When the company aquired the property, the house was divided into four tenements and in 1949, before the propert was demolished, the last four colliery tenants were Messers Affleck, Walker,Bankfoot and Mr T Robson.

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^{This information was taken from a book written by a Sacriston local man.}

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