Houghton le Spring Durham Family History Guide

Houghton le Spring is an Ancient Parish in the county of Durham.

Other places in the parish include: Bourn Moor, Wardenlaw, Warden Law, South Biddick, Offerton, Newbottle, New Herrington, Morton Grange, Morton, Moorsley, Moorhouse, Moor House, Middle Herrington, Law Warden, East and Middle Herrington, East Herrington, Cocken, Burnmoor, Brown Moor, Bournmoor, West Herrington, Philadelphia, Bunker-Hill, and Biddick Waterville.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Houghton le Spring

Parish registers: 1563
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1762

West Herrington

Parish registers: 1840
Bishop’s Transcripts: None

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Association.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

Houghton le Spring

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Durham. The town stands near a system of local railways, connected with the Hartlepool and Sunderland and the Durham and Sunderland lines, 1¾ mile E of Fence-Houses station of the Northeastern railway, and 6½ NE of Durham.

It got the latter part of its name either from its abundant springs, or more probably from the family of Le Spring. who, in the 13th century, held the manor. It possesses celebrity from the scene of the labours of Bernard Gilpin, commonly called the Apostle of the North, who was long the parish rector, and died in 1583; and it has been much visited on his account. It is approached from the r. station, by Rainton Hill, now covered with colliery works, and where Lord Burleigh made a notable exclamation respecting Gilpin.

It stands at the head of a beautiful vale, opening to the W, and sheltered from northerly and easterly winds by Houghton and Wardenlaw hills. It has undergone great improvement since 1810; and it now contains many large and handsome houses; yet it presents, in a general view, the appearance of a large blackened village.

Its parish church is an interesting cruciform edifice, of the period of transition from early English to decorated; stands in the centre of a square area in the lower part of the town; is approached through an avenue of fine sycamores; was recently restored; measures 93 feet by 46 in the nave, 48 by 20 in the chancel, and 87 in the transept; has a central tower, the upper storey of which is modern, and superseded a low leaden spire; had formerly, attached to it, a chantry and two guilds.

It and contains a cinque-cento altar tomb of Bernard Gilpin, a brass of R. Belasis of 1587, and the effigies of a knight, said by some to be that of Sir R. Belasis of the time of Henry III., but always referred by tradition to Sir John le Spring, who was murdered in his own manor house here in the time of Edward III.

The ballad of Surtees says respecting that knight, “Pray for the sowle of Sir John le Spring ! When the black monks sing, and the vesper bells ring, Pray for the sprite of a murder’d knight; Pray for the sowle of Sir John le Spring. He fell not when before the Cross, The waning Crescent fled, When the martyr’s palm and the golden crown Reward Christ’s soldier dead,”

The rectory was built in 1664-7, stands embosomed in sycamores, and is an embattled edifice, of venerable appearance. A tower connected with it, built in 1483, and forming part of the rectory inhabited by Gilpin, was recently destroyed. But a thorn tree, said to have been planted by Gilpin, and commonly called Gilpin’s Thorn, is still in the garden, and measures 11¼ feet at 2 feet from the ground. The rectory has been inhabited by Archbishop Sancroft, George Davenport, Peter Heylin, and the oriental traveller, Sir George Wheler.

The Roman Catholic church was built in 1837; and is a neat edifice, in the pointed style. There are places of worship also for United Presbyterians, Baptists, Wesleyans, and United Methodists. The mechanics’ institution was built in 1851; has a tower over the entrance; and contains a library and reading room. The Kepier grammar school stands near the parish church; was founded by Bernard Gilpin, and by Heath of Kepier; and has an endowed income of £181. Wheler’s school has £80; the Kepier alms houses have £81; and other charities have £180.

There are also a national school and a workhouse; and the latter, at the census of 1861, had 43 inmates. The town has a post-office under Fence Houses, and is a seat of petty sessions. A weekly market is held on Friday; and an annual fair or festival used to commence on the Sunday after New Michaelmas day, and to continue three or four days. There are breweries, an iron foundry, and two brick kilns; but the chief trade arises from numerous and extensive coal mines in the vicinity, yielding coal of superior quality, and sending it off, by railways, to the ports. There are also, in the neighbourhood, extensive quarries of limestone and freestone, and several chalybeate springs.

An ancient church or religions house stood on the S side of the town, in a field called Kirk-Lee; but has completely disappeared. Ancient coins, carved stones, and other vestiges of antiquity have been found. Houghton Hall, at the head of the town, is a massive, oblong, mullioned structure of 1589 -1623; was built by the Cromwellian trooper, R. Hutton, out of his share of the plunder of Dundee; and is now the seat of G. Elliott, Esq. Pop. of the town, in 1851, 3, 224; in 1861, 3, 824. Houses, 710.

The township comprises 1, 475 acres. Real property, £7, 698; of which £518 are in railways. Pop., 4, 741. Houses, 892. The parish contains also the townships of Wardenlaw, Morton Grange, Newbottle, Penshaw, Offerton, West Herrington, East and Middle Herrington, Great Eppleton, Little Eppleton, Hetton-le-Hole, East Rainton, West Rainton, Moorsley, Moorhouse, Cocken, Bourn-Moor, and South Biddick. Acres, 15, 494. Real property, £71, 265; of which £28, 600 are in mines, £1, 487 in quarries, and £3, 750 in railways. Pop. in 1851, 20, 284; in 1861, 22, 582. Houses, 4, 524.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value, £1, 600. Patron, the Bishop of Durham. The rectories of Hetton-le-Hole, Penshaw, and Rainton, were erected out of the parish under an act of 16 George III., and were endowed out of the revenues of the mother rectory, which previously was one of the richest livings in England. The vicarage of Newbottle, with the chapelry of Herrington, also is a separate benefice.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Herrington

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

HERRINGTON (EAST and MIDDLE), a township in Houghton le Spring parish, Durham; 4 miles SW of Sunderland. Acres, 1,002. Real property, £4,065. Pop., 242. Houses, 43. The manor belongs to the Earl of Durham and the Bishop of Durham. There is a Wesleyan chapel.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Newbottle

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

NEWBOTTLE, a village and a township chapelry in Houghton-le-Spring parish, Durham. The village stands1½ mile NNW of Houghton-le-Spring, and 2 N N E of Fence-Houses r. station; has a post-office under Fence-Houses; and is inhabited chiefly by colliers and potters.

The chapelry contains also the colliery village of Philadelphia, and the hamlet of Bunker-Hill. Acres, 1, 388. Real .property, £3,620. Pop. in 1851, 2,067; in 1861, 2, 67 4. Houses, 517. The manor belongs to the Earl of Durham. A lurid blaze seems to be over all the surface at night, from the huge fires burning at the mouths of numerous neighbouring coal-pits.

The living is a p. curacy, united with the chapelry of Herrington, in the diocese of Durham. Value, £420. Patron, the Bishop of Durham. The church was built in 1850; and is a neat stone structure, in the later English style. The parsonage was built in 1866. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists, and a national school.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

West Herrington

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

HERRINGTON (West), a township in Houghton-le-Spring parish, Durham; on the river Wear, 1½ mile W of Middle Herrington. Acres, 969. Real property, £1, 601. Pop. in 1851, 344; in 1861, 752. Houses, 155. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of coalmining, which led to the erection of a number of cottages, constituting the village of New Herrington. Limestone and building stone are quarried. There is a church, which was built in 1840; and the township is a chapelry, united with the p. curacy of Newbottle, in the diocese of Durham. Post town, Fence Houses.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Parish Registers

Houghton le Spring Strays

The people listed below have been found in the records of other parishes but are recorded as being from Houghton le Spring.

1781. George Charleton, of Houghton le Spring P., and Jane Paterson, of this P., May 6. – Banns were called in Seaham Church, but were not married there.

Marriage Licences and Allegations

London Marriage Licences and Allegations 1521 to 1869

The following have been extracted from London Marriage Licences 1521 to 1869.

Abbreviations. — B. Bishop of London’s Office; D. Dean and Chapter of Westminster; F. Faculty Office of Archbishop of Canterbury; V. Registry of the Vicar-General of Canterbury.

Cloet, Jasper, of St. Benet Fink, London, merchant, widower, and Anne Robinson, of St. Paul, Covent Garden, Middlesex, spinster, 23, daughter of Ralph Robinson, of Middle- Herington, in the bishoprice of Durham, gent., who consents — at St. Paul, Covent Garden, St. Mary, Savoy, or Chelsea, Middlesex. 1 July, 1678. F.

Source: London Marriage Licences 1521 to 1869; Edited by Joseph Foster; London 1887