In the course of dredging the river, and removing the stones said to be part of a causeway, a circular lead plate was reported to have been found fixed to one of the stones. It was subsequently lost. This find was first reported by Hooppell, and then published by Watkin, who described the plate as bearing the inscription IM D AVG with, in the centre, SC. Hooppell had conjectured that the Emperor Domitian was named in the inscription, but Watkin was noncommittal. Some years later Haverfield reported that, in his article in the Ephemeris (vii, n. 987), he had hinted that the reading of the plate was obviously wrong, i.e. impossible.

This entry is based on - so far - a single documentary reference. In the Durham Priory bursar's account of 1348-9 Threptend is listed among the vills owing tithes to the cell of Wearmouth. On the assumption that it therefore lay within the parish of Monkwearmouth it must have been situated on the north side of the River Wear. The first of the two maps listed above is perhaps the more likely, but it is possible that the site may have lain beyond them to the north. Dated C14th.

The earliest reference so far found is 1348-9, when the vill of Newton near Hylton was recorded as owing tithes to the cell of Wearmouth. Certainly part of the Hylton estates, and sometimes described as a manor, Newton appears in the i.p.m.s of the Hylton family until the mid C17. There are no appropriate farm names in the later documents relating to this estate so Newton must be classed as deserted, and its site - though presumably on the north side of the River Wear - unlocated. Either of the above two maps are possible. Dated C14th.

First reference appears to be early C13, when Robert son of Richard of Ravensworth quitclaimed to Geoffrey his nephew his right in the vill of Hameldon etc. Is this the same place? In Hatfield's Survey it appears to be a substantial settlement, - 5 free tenants, 15 holdings of demesne, 8 cottagers, 8 bondmen, a pounder, plus a windmill, bakehouse and forge. In 1465 the manor was held by Wm Bowes with its appendage of a messuage called the Barnes... The manor was later divided up, into Bainbridge-Holme, Barnes and Pallion, and the name of Hameldon rarely occurred after C17. Though this name presumably becomes Humbleton, the site of the original settlement is unknown, but see Barnes, SMR 54. Dated C13th

A tithe barn once stood in the grounds of the rectory of Bishopwearmouth. Probably medieval, though this cannot now be proved, it was perhaps last used for the storage of tithes by Archdeacon Paley. It was later used as a brewhouse, laundry, slaughterhouse, stable and hayloft. Of local limestone, with walls 3 feet thick, and originally 108 feet long, it was - in 1905 - of two storeys, the upper with massive beams, and had a high pitched roof covered with pantiles above a bottom course of flagstones. E wall had had 3 buttresses, and 2 ventilation slits, 2" wide splaying to 22" and 7'2" and 5'9" high. Two windows, one "originally trellised" (? traceried) sound early. The western half of the barn was demolished in the early19th century to make way for a street, and the rest in C20.

Mitchell believed that there had been a "Roman station" near the mouth of the Wear, on the high ground at the north end of Castle Street. As evidence he cited: a) Its commanding situation b) A one-time ancient building there c) Four foot thick founds of worked stones and cement "in keeping with Roman workmanship" examined by John Moore in 1873 d) "Ancient sculptured stones of supposed Roman work" dug up near the Castle Well e) Roman inscribed stone in wall of rectory coach-house. Petch thought the notion a possibility but the site now irrecoverable. The supposed inscription was subsequently debunked as 18th century.

"Dr Collingwood...writes, that 'near the dock and staith of Lord Durham was formerly a well of excellent water, from which the shipping was supplied, and known to the older inhabitants by the name of the Castle Well".(1) Mitchell refers to "The ancient well in the district...for centuries known as the Castle Well", but does not locate it.(2) The grid ref has been calculated by the O.S. thus: Lord Durham's dock and staith may refer to the Lambton Drops on the R. Wear (O.S. 6" 1862), and "'Castle Well' would have been situated at approximately NZ 3930 5740 in a low lying grassy area on the south bank of the River Wear at the bottom of a deep gorge known as the 'Galley's Gill'. No trace of a well at this position".(3)

"About 200 yards to the north-west of the church, in a garden, there was, a few years ago, an ancient well, formerly known by the name of the Monk's Well, which, according to tradition, belonged to the monastry (sic). It is now built over; but remains of it may still be traced in the walls of a house lately erected on its scite". The O.S. initially conflated this with Castle Well (SMR 38) but subsequently separated them.

"A Medieval two-handled bronze skillet was dredged from the River Wear in 1830 and is now in Sunderland Museum. The curator of Sunderland Museum did not indicate the exact provenance of the find but suggested that it was dredged from the River Wear somewhere in Sunderland". I must have seen this object at some time since I have added a note to the effect that it is circular, 16 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep.(RBH)

"Possible 6th century Anglo-Saxon red and white bead found in the garden of 70 Plawsworth Square, Pennywell, some years before 1965. In Sunderland Museum". Information derived from Sunderland Museum record. Dated C6th.