Wooler Northumberland Family History Guide

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Wooler is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Northumberland. Fenton is a chapelry of Wooler.

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1692
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1766

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Bible Christian Methodist, Presbyterian, Presbyterian Church in England, Roman Catholic, United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Wooler Parish Registers

Marriage and Banns Records

Wooler Marriages 1693-1765

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.

Wooler Bishops Transcripts 1764-1868

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WOOLER, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Glendale district, Northumberland. The town stands on a branch of the river Till, under the Cheviots, 9½ miles SW by W of Belford r. station; was anciently called Willover; was given, by Henry I., to R. de Muscamp; passed to the Scropes, the D’Arcys, the Percys, the Greys, and the Earl of Tankerville; was much injured by fire in 1722 and in 1863.

It is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts, and a polling place; presents an appearance partly poor, and partly much improved: and has a post-office under Alnwick, a banking office, a good inn, a mechanics’ institute, with library and reading-rooms, a church rebuilt in 1765 and enlarged in 1835, four dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a public school, a dispensary, the Glendale workhouse, a weekly market on Thursday, and fairs on 4 May and 17 Oct.

The parish includes Fenton township and several hamlets, and comprises 4,852 acres-Real property, £8,002. Pop. in 1851, 1,911; in 1861, 1,697. Houses, 322. Traces of an old castle of the Muscamps are on a round hill. Many ancient entrenchments are in the vicinity. Humbledon Heugh, connected with the battle of Humbledon, and about a mile NW of the town, is the most remarkable of the entrenchments; and a pillar, commemorative of Earl Percy’s victory, is in the plain beneath. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £478. Patron, the Bishop of Chester.

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

Historical Maps

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

Wooler 1922 Northumberland Sheet 16.13 This detailed map of Wooler is double-sided for maximum coverage. It includes most of the town and the countryside to the west, towards Humbleton Hill. Features include the town centre with individual buildings shown, railway with part of station (at top of map), St Mary's church, Bridge End, Tower, Market Place, Wooler Brewery, Glendale Union Workhouse, St Ninian's RC Church, The Kettles, Green Castle, camps, Humbleton Mill, Kenterdale Hill, Brown's Law, Humbleton Hill etc. View Map Details*
Wooler 1922 Northumberland Sheet 16.13

Administration

  • County: Northumberland
  • Civil Registration District: Glendale
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Bamburgh
  • Poor Law Union: Glendale
  • Hundred: Glendale Ward
  • Province: York