Along the banks of the Wear, three miles west of Wolsingham, is situated the village of Frosterley. Here early settlers appear to have had an abode on the banks of the river. The present name of the village is evidently derived from the forest or foresters of the Bishops of Durham, who resided here to manage the great forest westward, but the Scandinavian personal name, Frosti, is worthy of consideration. There appears, however, to have been a far earlier settlement here. A very small enclosure near the river-side is named Bottlingham, but not a vestige of a settlement remains, and the name of the small plot of ground is all that is now left. Bolihope, a tributary valley to the Wear, and which empties its burn into the river a hundred yards or two below the place under consideration, was called, in Bishop Bec’s time, Bothelinghopp. In these two names we have the _hope_ and the _ham_ of some Anglo-Saxon settlers, named Pottel, which by the law of interchange might become Bottel. Bodvulf, who died in 655, was canonized, having founded the monastery of Ikano. This saint’s relics were dispersed, hence several churches are dedicated to St. Botolph, and Bottlebridge is St. Botolph’s bridge. The old chapel at Frosterley was, according to tradition, dedicated to St. Botolph, and close to the chapel site there is Bot’s Well, a name which would appear to confirm the local tradition in respect to the dedication. Stanhope, too, with its Anglo-Saxon initial syllable _stan_, a stone, and Celtic _hope_, had an older settlement in all probability than the present town, which takes its name from the adjoining Hope, which is full of rocks or stones. At the west end of Stanhope town there is a small stream called Allerton Burn, which gathers its waters near Allerton Riggs, lying north-west of Stanhope. The stream joins the Hope Burn, near Stanhope Hall, but where is Allerton? which is, or was, the _ton_ or town beside the allers or alders, or more probably the enclosed place of some Saxon named Alder or Ealder, from Anglo-Saxon _ald_, old, and _hari_, warrior. The site of this place was most likely near Allerton Bridge at Stanhope Hall, and this old hall residence--the seat of the Fetherston-halghs, from the days of King Stephen--probably represents the spot which we are in search of; it occupies a tongue of land between the confluence of the Allerton and Stanhope Burns. Seven hundred years ago, persons bearing the Saxon names of Osbert, Ethelred, Meldred, Goda, Aldred, Collan, and others, held lands at Stanhope, and did service under the Bishops of Durham.