East Boldon

The village that named a medieval survey

In 1183, Bishop Hugh du Puiset ordered a full survey of the Bishopric of Durham's lands and rents — the first such survey undertaken anywhere north of the River Tees. Because the entry for Boldon came first in the finished document, later entries used the shorthand operantur sicut Boldon — "they work as at Boldon" — to compare obligations elsewhere, and the whole survey became known ever after as the Boldon Book, sometimes called the "Domesday Book of the North." East Boldon itself likely split from the older settlement of West Boldon around the 13th century, referenced as "the new moor of East Boldon" in 1283, and grew into the neat, compact village whose green and back lanes are still recognisable today.