Lanchester Durham Family History Guide

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Lanchester is an Ancient Parish in the county of Durham.

Other places in the parish include: Billingside, Kyo, Ivestone, Holmside (part) Iveston, Healeyfield, Healey Field, Greencroft, East Butsfield, West Butsfield and Steely, Cornsay, Conside with Knitsley, Conside cum Knitsley, Conside and Knitsley, Butsfield, Burnop and Hamstees, Burnop and Hamsteels, Burnop and Hamsteds, Burnhope, Lanchester Proper, and Langley.

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1560
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1763

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Lanchester Parish Registers

Bishops Transcripts

Explore the Bishops’ Transcripts for the Diocese of Durham (1639–1919) – This collection offers parish register copies submitted annually to the Bishop, covering baptisms, marriages, and burials across Durham, Northumberland, and parts of Yorkshire and Cumberland. Ideal for tracing ancestors when original registers are missing or incomplete.

Lanchester Bishops Transcripts 1855-1865

Lanchester Strays

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

1786. Moses Emmerson, of Lanchester P., and Thomason Crags, of this P., Oct. 8 – Banns were called in Seaham Church, but were not married there.

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

LANCHESTER, a village, a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in the district and county of Durham. The village stands on Smallhope burn, and on the Lanchester Valley railway, near a Roman station, 7½ miles WNW of Durham; consists largely of building material taken from the Roman station; was formerly a place of greater importance than at present; is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; and has a post-office under Durham, a station on the railway, and a police-station.

The Roman station was on an eminence, a little to the W; stood on Watling-street, near the junction with Wreken-dyke; formed a parallelogram, of 183 yards from N to S, and 143 from E to W; was surrounded by a vallum of ashlar-work, from 8 to 12 feet high, in regular courses, with stones 12 feet long and 9 inches thick; had a deep fosse on the W side of the vallum, and slopes on the other sides; appears to have been defended, at the angles, by round towers.

It is supposed, by some antiquaries, to have been the Eperakon of Ptolemy, by others, to have been the Longovicum of the Notitia; has yielded a great number of Roman altars, Roman coins, and other Roman relics; was in a remarkably fine state of preservation till 1851, when considerable portions of it were destroyed for sake of the stone; and is still in such extensive preservation as to be one of the most interesting antiquities of its class in England.

The township bears the name of Lanchester and Hamlets, and comprises 4,266 acres. Real property, £5,252; of which £315 are in mines. Pop. in 1851,752; in 1861,876. Houses, 156.

The parish contains also the townships of Billingside, Medomsley, Ebchester, Benfieldside, Healeyfield, Conside-cum-Knitsley, Burnop and Hamstees, Ivestone, Greencroft, Holmside, Langley, Esh, Butsfield, Cornsay, Collierley, and Kyo, and the chapelry of Satley. Acres, 38,867. Real property, £120,913; of which £19,344 are in mines, £39,324 in iron-works, £46 in quarries, and £300 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 15,814; in 1861, 22,338. Houses, 4,057.

The manor belongs to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Greencroft Hall, Ford Hall, Woodlands Hall, and Colpike Hall are chief residences.

The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Durham. Value, £300. Patron, the Bishop of Ripon. The church was originally Norman; retains some Norman portions; is chiefly early English, with insertions or additions of later date; includes in its masonry, stones taken from the Roman station; has a tower, whose lowest stage is a good specimen of decorated English; was made collegiate, by Bishop Beek, in 1283; and contains oak stalls, hagiological sculptures, a chalice found in 1571 in the Roman station, an effigies of Dean Austell of 1461, and several brasses.

The p. curacies of Benfieldside, Castleside, Collierley, Consett, Ebchester, Esh, Holmside, Leadgate, Medomsley, and Satley, are separate benefices.

There are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists, an endowed school, alms-houses with £240 a-year, other charities with £68, and a workhouse. Baker, the historian of St. John’s College, Cambridge, was a native.

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

Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

County: Durham
Civil Registration District: Durham
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
Diocese: Durham
Rural Deanery: Chester le Street
Poor Law Union: Lanchester
Hundred: Chester Ward; Darlington Ward; Durham Ward
Province: York