Durham possesses another very good example of Early English architecture in the parish church of Darlington, dedicated to St. Cuthbert. It consists of a chancel, north and south transepts, a nave with aisles, and a central tower crowned by a spire. That it stands on a site of great antiquity is proved by the discovery, in 1866, during restoration, of fragments of three pre-Conquest crosses, which are now preserved in the church. In the charter of Styr, son of Ulf, which is included in a record called by Symeon, the "Ancient Chartulary of the Church," there is given to St. Cuthbert "the vill which is called Dearthingtun, with sac and soc," and Symeon again mentions Darlington as one of the places to which the secularized monks of Durham were removed in 1083 by William de St. Carileph. On the authority of Geoffry de Coldingham, the erection of the church has been ascribed to Bishop Pudsey, and the date to 1190-95. The principal entrance is in the west front, set in a richly moulded arch, with a trefoil-headed niche above. In the second stage of the front is an arcade of five arches, and the third stage has three arches, all with dividing shafts. The arches in the second stage are pierced alternately with lancet lights. The walls of the aisle were greatly altered about the middle of the fourteenth century, and all the square-headed windows belong to this period, no features dating from the original erection of the church remaining except the doorways. The north doorway has been greatly restored, and the south doorway was originally covered by a porch; it has a niche above. The clerestory has an arcade of twelve arches pierced with four lancet windows on each side. Both transepts and the chancel are of two stages, divided by string courses; but the south transept is more enriched than the north, both internally and externally. Buttresses divide the walls of the chancel into three bays, and the walls and ends of the transepts are similarly divided into two bays each. Those buttresses at the junctions of the transepts and the chancel, owing to their great proportion, have much the appearance of corner turrets. The spire and the higher stage of the tower are of the same date as the walls of the aisles. Longstaffe says of the spire: "On July 17, 1750, this beautiful spire, considered the highest and finest in the North of England, was rent.... The storm occasioned fifteen yards of the spire to be taken down and rebuilt in 1752.... Unfortunately the mason omitted the moulding at the angles of the new part." Incidentally it should be noted that Durham is one of the counties in which spires are comparatively rare.