Sadberge is a village in the borough of
DarlingtonDarlington is a local government district and borough in North East England. In 2003 it had a resident population of 98,210. It borders County Durham to the north and west, North Yorkshire to the south along the line of the River Tees, and Stockton-on-Tees to the east.Traditionally part of County...
and ceremonial county of
County DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in North East England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington. The county has an industrial heritage and its economy was historically based on coal and iron mining...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated between
DarlingtonDarlington is a town in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England, and the main population centre in the Borough of Darlington. Darlington has a resident population of 97,838 as of 1997. On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area, which separated it from the...
and
Stockton-on-TeesStockton-on-Tees is a market town in North East England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority area and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...
. The village of Sadberge was once the Wapentake (capital) of the Viking settled area north of the Tees known as the Earldom of Sadberge which stretched from
HartlepoolHartlepool is a town and port in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County palatine of...
to
TeesdaleTeesdale is a dale, or valley, of the east side of the Pennines in England. Large parts of Teesdale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - the second largest AONB in England and Wales. The River Tees rises below Cross Fell, the highest hill in the Pennines, and its...
. Wapentakes were found in parts of England settled by Danes and continued to be important administrative centres through to medieval times. The word wapentake literally translated means `Weapon Taking' and refers to the way in which land was held in return for military service to a chief.
Sadberge is a name of
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
origin deriving from Setberg, meaning `flat topped hill', - an accurate description of the location of the village from where good views of the surrounding countryside can be obtained. The place name Setberg from which Sadberge derives also occurs in
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and in Viking settled
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
. Closer to home in
NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
settled
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
we may find the village of
SedberghSedbergh is a small town in Cumbria, England. It lies about east of Kendal and about north of Kirkby Lonsdale. The town lies just within the Yorkshire Dales National Park...
near
KendalKendal is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. It is south of Carlisle, on the River Kent, and has a total resident population of 27,505, making it the third largest settlement in Cumbria .Historically a part of Westmorland, Kendal today is known...
which has the same meaning.
In Norman times the Earldom of Sadberge, though north of the
River TeesThe Tees is a river in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines, and flows eastwards for about 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar. It drains an area of 708 square miles and subsumes no important tributaries...
, was not part of
DurhamDurham is a city in the North East of England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county....
and was not initially under the rule of Durham's Prince Bishops. Instead, it formed an outlying part of the county of
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
by virtue of the fact that it had been part of the old Kingdom of
NorthumbriaNorthumbria or Northhumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now north-east England and southern Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber...
.
In 1139
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
was given to
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
by England's King
StephenStephen often known as Stephen of Blois was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was the last Norman King of England, from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne jure uxoris. His reign was marked by civil war with his rival the Empress Matilda and general chaos, known as The Anarchy...
and the River Tees became the southern boundary of the kingdom of Scotland. This situation continued until 1157 when Northumberland was reclaimed by
Henry IIHenry II, called Curtmantle ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France...
.
Hugh de PuisetHugh de Puiset was a medieval bishop of Durham and Chief Justiciar of England under King Richard I. He was the nephew of King Stephen of England and Henry of Blois, who both assisted Hugh's ecclesiastical career...
, was largely responsible for the decline in importance of Sadberge. He added the earldom to Durham in 1189 and from then on Sadberge was ruled from Durham. Sadberge retained some independence and continued to be administered as an almost separate county until 1576. Until their abolition in 1971 the Palatine courts were a part of the "County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge".