Description

Binchester, a township in St Andrew-Auckland and Byers Green parishes, Durham, on the river Wear, adjacent to the Weardale railway, 1 mile N by E of Bishop-Auckland station on the N.E.R. Post town, Bishop-Auckland. Acreage, 596; population of Binchester, 53; of Byers Green, 2346 ; and of the ecclesiastical parish of Byers Green, 8505. The manor has belonged to the Wren family since the time of James I., and their mansion on it, a venerable building with wings, appears to have been built about the beginning of that king's reign. A spot on the brow of an eminence, commanding an extensive view, and now enclosed and cultivated, was the Roman station Binovium or Vinovium, and has yielded a great variety of Roman relics. The extent of the station was probably about 30 acres. The Roman Watling Street passed either through it or close on its western side.