Shincliffe

Shincliffe is a village in the City of Durham, County Durham, in England. It is situated just over a mile to the south-east of Durham City, on the A177 road to Stockton. Shincliffe is also a civil and ecclesiastical parish consisting of Shincliffe Village, High Shincliffe, Sherburn House and Whitwell House.

Shincliffe is regarded as one of the most affluent villages in Durham City and has been designated a conservation area to preserve its historic character.

In medieval times Shincliffe was an agricultural community belonging to the Prior of Durham Cathedral. The population grew significantly due to coal mining at nearby Houghall, Old Durham and Shincliffe Colliery (now High Shincliffe) but declined following mine closures in the late 19th century.

Shincliffe was an outlying part of the large Durham parish of St. Oswald's. A rectory was built in the village in 1800, and a Chapel of Ease in 1826. Shincliffe became a parish in its own right in 1831, however the Parish Church, St. Mary's, was not built until 1851. John Wesley preached in Shincliffe in 1780. A (Wesleyan) Methodist Chapel opened in Shincliffe in 1874.

Shincliffe is the site of a medieval bridge over the River Wear and recent archaeological investigations suggest Shincliffe may have been the site of a Roman crossing [cite news
title = On verge of rewriting history
publisher = The Northern Echo
date = 2005-09-22
url = http://archive.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/2005/9/22/206798.html
accessdate = 2007-07-29 ] . Durham's first railway station opened at Shincliffe in 1839 as the passenger terminus between the Durham area and Sunderland but closed in 1893 once a line had been run from Sherburn House to Durham itself. A goods line continued to Houghall and Croxdale Colliery. In the 1920s, Back Lane along the eastern side of the village was enlarged to become a by-pass for it.

William Sever, Bishop of Durham (1502-1505) was born in Shincliffe.

References

External links

* [http://www.shincliffe.org.uk/ Shincliffe Community Association]
* [http://www.shincliffe.org.uk/ParishCouncil/index.htm Shincliffe Parish Council]
* [http://website.lineone.net/~pjoiner/genuki/DUR/DurhamStOswald/Shincliffe.html GenUKi entry on Shincliffe]
* [http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/s027.htm Durham Mining Museum entry on Shincliffe Colliery]
* [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/s/sherburn_house/index.shtml History of Sherburn House Station, including further information on Shincliffe Station]