Tweedmouth, Northumberland Family History Guide

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Tweedmouth is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Northumberland, created in 1737 from a chapelry in the ancient parish of Holy Island.

Other places included in the parish: Spittal, Ord.

Parish church: St. Bartholomew

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1711
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1764

Nonconformists include: Presbyterian

Adjacent Parishes

Tweedmouth 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.

Tweedmouth Bishops Transcripts 1764-1885

Parish History

Tweedmouth

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

TWEEDMOUTH, a village, a township, and a parish, in Berwick district, Northumberland. The village stands on the Northeastern railway, at the junction of the branch to Kelso, 1 mile S of Berwick; had a castle, founded by King John, and destroyed by William of Scotland; is a seat of petty-sessions; carries on industry in iron foundries, a brewery, saw-mills, a paper mill, and engine works; and has a great r. station with telegraph, a church, two Presbyterian chapels, an ultra-mural cemetery, and a national school.

The township comprises 1,931 acres of land and 397 of water. Pop., 2,884. Houses, 394. The parish contains also Spittal and Ord townships, and comprises 5,140 acres. Post town, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Real property, £15,251; of which £150 are in quarries, £475 in mines, £316 in fisheries, and £500 in gasworks. Pop., 5,414. Houses, 789. The manor belongs to the corporation of Berwick. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £300. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of D.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

TWEEDMOUTH (St. Bartholomew), a parish, in the union of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Islandshire, N. division of Northumberland; adjoining Berwick, and containing, with the townships of Ord and Spittle, 5202 inhabitants, of whom 2574 are in the township of Tweedmouth.

In 1203, King John made an attempt to fortify the town of Tweedmouth, but his progress was twice interrupted by the Scots, and during the occupation of Berwick by William the Lion, the works were entirely demolished.

The town or village, which is situated on the south bank of the river Tweed, forms a handsome suburb to the borough of Berwick, with which it is connected by an elegant bridge. The inhabitants of the parish are chiefly employed in agriculture and fishing; in the town are two extensive foundries, a yard for boatbuilding, a brewery, a millwright’s establishment, and a mill for crushing bones for manure.

The Edinburgh and Newcastle railway, completing the communication with London, passes through the village; and from the abundance of coal, limestone, and stone for building, in the neighbourhood, with facilities of conveyance, and the command of a good harbour, there is every prospect of a great increase in the manufacturing and commercial importance of the place.

A part of the parish is included within the boundaries of Berwick; petty-sessions for this portion of Tweedmouth are held every Friday, and for that part of it within the county on the first Wednesday in every month.

The parish comprises 4520 acres, chiefly arable. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £150; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church, formerly a chapel of ease to Holy Island, was rebuilt in 1783.

There are two places of worship for Presbyterians; and a national school, erected in 1825. An ancient hospital existed here, near the site of which is a slightly impregnated mineral spring; and in the neighbourhood of Ord are vestiges of a British intrenchment, close to which fragments of military weapons have been found.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Spittal

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

SPITTLE, a village and a township in Tweedmouth parish, Northumberland. The village stands on the coast, at the mouth of the river Tweed, opposite Berwick, 1 mile E of Tweedmouth r. station.

It took its name from an ancient hospital; was once a resort of smugglers and pirates; is now a watering-place, with many good lodging-houses, an excellent bathing-beach, and a mineral spring; comprises two chief streets, one of them about a mile long; contains the gasworks for Tweedmouth and Berwick; carries on a large trade in catching, curing, and smoking herrings; carries on also iron-founding, and spade and shovel-making; and has a post-office under Berwick, a coastguard station, a church built in 1867, a U. Presbyterian chapel, and a large school. The township comprises 244 acres. Pop., 1,768. Houses, 240.

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

Ord

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ORD, a township, with a village, in Tweedmouth parish, Northumberland; on the river Tweed, and on the Tweedmouth and Kelso railway, 1 mile W of Tweed-mouth. Acres, 2, 568. Pop. in 1851, 914; in 1861, 762. Houses, 155. Ord House is a chief residence. An embankment at the W end of the village commands a fine vista-view of the Merse. Traces of a Roman camp, connected with Watling-street, are in a field to the W.

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: Northumberland
  • Civil Registration District: Berwick
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Norham
  • Poor Law Union: Berwick
  • Hundred: Islandshire
  • Province: York