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Plawsworth Hall

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You may find this relevant information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit

Trimdon - King Canute & his pilgrimage

According to legend Trimdon, near the source of the River Skerne was the place where King Canute shaved his head and trimmed his beard before donning a cloak at the beginning of a bare foot pilgrimage from Garmondsway near Coxhoe to St Cuthbert’shrine at Durham. Sadly there is no evidence to support the claim that Trimdon means "trimming and donning" as early forms of the name are quite different.

Historic forms of the name include Tremeldona in 1196 and Trembledon in 1339 and the present form Trimdon did not come into use until 1539.. The "don" in Trimdon is almost certainly an Anglo-Saxon word for a hill and is perhaps a reference to the nearby ridge which stretches west to Cornforth. Tremel the first part of the early name Tremeldon is thought to mean a wooden cross or sign. It has been argued that the name referred to a wooden post erected by pagan Anglo Saxons and that a Christian church was later established on the site. An earlier idea that the don referred to a mound formed by a pagan burial is now thought unlikely. Today the original Trimdon is the site of a medieval church but is now accompanied by the nearby villages of Trimdon Grange, and Trimdon Colliery, both more recent settlements with coal mining origins.

The Trimdon Grange Mine Explosion

Mining disasters and colliery explosions were a feature of life in the coal mining days of County Durham history. The Trimdon Grange Colliery Explosion which took place ion February 16 1883 is especially famous because it was recorded in a song by the County Durham Pitman poet Tommy Armstrong of Tanfield Lea, North West Duham(1848-1920). Tommy’s song was composed to raise money in aid of the widows and orphans.

Let us not think of tomorrow,
Lest we disappointed be;
All our joys may turn to sorrow,
As we all may daily see.
Today we may be strong and healthy,
But how soon there comes a change
As we may learn from the explosion.
That has been at Trimdon Grange.
Men and boys left home that morning.
For to earn their daily bread.
Little thought before that evening
That they’d be numbered with the dead;
Let us think of Mrs Bumett,
Once had sons but now has none.
By the Trimdon Grange explosion.
joseph George and Tames are gone.
February left behind it
What will never be forgot;
Weeping widows, helpless children,
May he found in many a cot,
Homes that once were blest with comfort,
Guarded by a father’s care,
Now are solemn, sad and gloomy,
Since the father is not there.
Little children, kind and and loving,
From their homes each day would run
Far to meet their father’s coming,
As each hard day’s work was done.
Now they ask if father’s left them.
Then the mother hangs her head
With a weeping widows feelings.
Tells the child that father’s dead."
God protect the lonely widow,
Help to raise each drooping head;
Be a father to the orphans,
Never let them cry for bread.
Death will pay us all a visit,
They have only gone before;
We may meet the Trimdon victims
where explosions are no more.

A mile to the north west of Sedgefield, is the village of Bishop Middleham, where the remains of a castle earthwork can be seen. The castle was once an important residence of the Prince Bishops of Durham. Two little known Durham Bishops, Robert De Insula (1274-1283) and Richard Kellaw (1311-1316) are known to have died at the Middleham residence. De Insula was described as "a jolly monk, whose mother complained of too many servants" while Richard Kellaw's reign was troubled by Scottish raids and problems with local robbers and bandits, who he tried very hard to suppress.

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