The borough of Crossgate formed a large section of the medieval city of Durham. It corresponded to the chapelry, later the parish, of St Margaret, and was subject to the lordship of Durham Priory, in whose archives these documents have survived, dating chiefly from the 1390s and to the years 1498-1531. The records offer a sharp focus on the local administration of justice, as well as containing graphic detail concerning other aspects of urban society in the late middle ages.

They are printed here with a detailed rental of the borough from the year 1500, which allows individual properties to be located and mapped, while the apparatus is designed both to illuminate the record and to serve as an introduction to historians needing to consult other urban records.