LANCHESTER, a parish, in the  county palatine of DURHAM,
comprising the chapelries
of Ebchester, Esh, Medomsley, and Satley, and the
townships of Benfield-side, Burnop with Hamsteels,
Butsfield, Collierly, Conside with Knitsley, Billingside,
Greencroft, Heelyfield, Holmside, Ivestone, Kyo, Lanchester,
and Langley, in the western division of CHESTER
ward, and the township of Comsay, in the north-western
division of DARLINGTON ward, county palatine of
DURHAM, and containing 4979 inhabitants, of which
number, 659 are in the township of Lanchester, 8 miles
(N. W. by W.) from Durham. The living is a perpetual
curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Durham,
endowed with £1040 private benefaction, £200 royal
bounty, and £ 900 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage
of the Bishop of Durham. The church, dedicated
to All Saints, is a venerable structure in the early
style of English architecture, surmounted by a square
tower of hewn stone, adorned with battlements and
flying buttresses; in the interior are several sculptured
decorations, interesting monuments, and portions of
stained glass. It was made collegiate, for a dean and
seven prebendaries, by Bishop Anthony Beke, about 1283,
and valued, at the dissolution, at £49. 3. 4., and in the
Lincoln taxation at £90. 13. 4., per annum; the dean's
house occupied a plot of ground surrounded by a fosse,
a little northward from the church; but there are no
vestiges, excepting six carved oak seats under an arch
in the northern wall of the chancel, and a piscina on the
southern side of the altar. There is a place of worship
for Wesleyan Methodists. A free school was established
hy subscription, in 1748, and is endowed with £ 10 per
annum, the bequest of George Clavering, Esq., of Greencroft.
At Cornsey, in this parish, almshouses for the
maintenance of six poor men and six poor women, with
a master and a mistress, were founded, by the late W.
Russel, Esq., of Brancepeth castle, and endowed with a
rent-charge. Petty sessions are held here once a fortnight,
and a court for the recovery of debts under 40a.
twice a year. The new turnpike road from Durham to
Shotley bridge, made under an act of parliament obtained
in 1810, passes through the vale in this parish.
Lanchester occupies the site of a principal Roman station,
though its identity has been disputed by antiquaries.
Camden, Gale, and Hunter, call it Longovicum; Horsley,
Glambanta or Glanoventa (considered the most perfect
Roman station in the kingdom); whilst modern writers
regard it as Eplacum: the period of its origin is uncertain,
but its restoration is ascribed to the Emperor
Gordian; it stood on the line of the Watling-street, and
was successively garrisoned by a portion of the twentieth
legion, the Vardull, and the Ligones. The station
occupied an eminence half a mile westward from the
village; the rampart, enclosing a cultivated area of eight
acres, is in most parts quite perfect: numerous coins,
altars, monuments, and other relics, have been discovered
at different periods; several of which are preserved
in the library at Durham.