In another part of this volume full justice has been done to these early churches, but some reference must be made here to the church of Escomb, in the west of the county. It is perhaps of an equally early date and a remarkably perfect example of a church of the period. Very little is known of its early history, but after the Dissolution it was regarded as a chapel-of-ease to St. Andrew’s, Auckland. In 1879 it had fallen into disuse, a new church having been built at some distance. But upon the "re-discovery" of the nature of the old building, in that year, funds were at once raised for its repair. The church consists of a square chancel, a nave, and a porch as a later addition. The church has undoubtedly been built with stones from the Roman camp of Binchester, many of which show the diamond broaching. Professor Baldwin Brown is of the opinion that the chancel arch, which is the most striking feature of the interior, was removed bodily from the camp and set up in pre-Conquest times in its present position. On the south side of the chancel there are two original windows, with semicircular heads, cut out of single blocks, and jambs battering inwards. There are two original windows on the north side with square heads. The sills of these windows are thirteen feet from the floor level, and another window in the west end is placed still higher. At later dates the walls have been pierced with other windows, two in the south wall of the nave, one in the west gable, one in the east end, and one in the south wall of the chancel. Between the two original windows on the south is a "Saxon" sundial. The original entrances were in the north and south walls of the nave, and there is a later doorway in the chancel. A fragment of an early cross is preserved in the church. Contemporary with these churches there existed at Hartlepool a monastic house said by Bede to have been founded by Heiu, the first Northumbrian nun, and subsequently extended by St. Hilda, before her transition to Whitby in 657. Although continued after this date, its history during the period of the Danish invasion is lost. The present Church of St. Hilda is mentioned in the confirmatory charter to Guisborough Priory of Bishop Pudsey in 1195, and in those of several of his successors, and was most likely included in the original grant with the churches of Hart and Stranton, of which it was a dependent chapel. In 1308 Bishop Bek, as a reward for the continual devotion, charity, and hospitality of the Prior and convent of Guisborough, granted them the indulgence, that in the church of Hart and chapel of Hartlepool, service should, after that date, be perpetually performed by a canon of Guisborough. Statutes for the government of the church were drawn up by the Corporation of Hartlepool in 1599, and appear in the Corporation records, whence the following extract: