At Billingham the church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert. The tower is of pre-Conquest date, and has certain points of resemblance to the higher stage of that at St. Peter’s, Monkwearmouth. Several fragments of pre-Conquest crosses are built into the south wall of the tower, and the church has three memorial brasses. In Durham City, St. Oswald’s, the parish church of Elvet, has a well-recorded history, and was the subject of an amusing dispute between the Bishop Philip de Pictavia and the Prior and monks of Durham, arising from a charter [Illustration: NORTON CHURCH.] of Henry II. confirming to the latter "Elvet, with the church of the same town." On the accession of Philip--the last vicar, Richard de Coldingham, having recently died-- "Four of the monks from St. Cuthbert’s held possession of the church, and lived constantly in it. "The Bishop ... issued a command that the monks should quit the church. This they refused to do; whereupon the Bishop employed as many as thirty watchmen, who guarded all the doors and windows, so that no food should reach the monks in the church. After two or three days, two of the monks could endure the fast no longer, and abandoned their charge. Their example was shortly followed by the others.... Four days were occupied by negotiations, at the end of which the Bishop confirmed the possession of the church to them ‘for their own proper uses.’"--BOYLE. The church is of various periods, and has a very good clerestory with a fine open-work parapet, and a tower of more than ordinary interest, with a stone staircase in the thickness of the wall, roofed with thirteenth and fourteenth century grave-covers. St. Margaret’s and St. Giles’s are two city churches of interest. Both have several pre-Reformation bells, and of the latter-- "an interesting fact in the history of this church is that St. Godric, during the period he resided in Durham, was an attendant at its services, and at length became doorkeeper and bellringer."--BOYLE.