I wanted to point people in the direction of David Simpson's North East England History Pages, which has a section devoted to County Durham History. This looks to be an excellent resource for developing our Story Map of Durham's Necklace Park.

In my last post, I promised I would go into some of the more interesting stories encountered during research, and for your reading pleasure I present to you...

The Legend of Sir John Duck

Sir John Duck is known as Durham's Dick Whittington, except where Whittington dreamed of streets paved with gold, the young John Duck pined for streets puddled with offal, where one could wade ankle deep in the guts of slaughtered animals. The tales of Fleshewergate, where the butchers slaughtered animals in the street, captured his imagination and inspired him to travel to Durham to become a butcher. The Butcher's Guild, however, would not accept him because they suspected he was a scot. (Bear in mind this was 1655, and only about 5 years previous to this the Durham Cathedral was used to camp scottish prisoners of war; those not starved to death were sold into slavery).

In spite of this, Duck found work, with a butcher named John Heslop. He soon married Heslop's daughter; one can only imagine the charms of the lady who snared the little boy who dreamt of open air abbotoirs.

The guild got heavy with Heslop, and Duck was persuaded to leave town. He was canny that Heslop, waiting till they were married before he caved to the Guild's pressure. From here on, it turns into a shaggy dog story as John Duck heads for Framwellgate Bridge on his way out of town, and a raven drops a gold coin at his feet. At the bridge, he met a farmer who was having difficulty driving a couple of cows to market. Duck bought the cows with the coin, drove them to market, and made a profit. Through his successful cattle dealership, he was eventually able to realise his dreams of trading as a butcher, and was slopping about in cattle guts in his wellies with the best of them.

By 1680, this cleaver-wielding, blood-bespattered tradesman was accepted as Mayor of the city, and was given the Freedom of the Butchers' Company. Apparently, though, there is more to this chap than his lust for hewing raw meat, as he did found a hospital and was also knighted by King Charles II.

Readers will probably note that I have taken liberties with my historical retelling.