Willington, Durham

Historical Description

Willington, a village, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish in Brancepeth parish, Durham. The village stands on the Durham and Bishop Auckland railway, 5 miles N of Bishop Auckland, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.), and a railway station. The township is governed by a district council, and comprises 1452 acres; population, 5107. Viscount Boyne is lord of the manor and principal landowner. There are extensive collieries and several coke ovens. The ecclesiastical parish was constituted in 1858. Population, 6850. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham; net value, £225 with residence. Patron, the Rector of Brancepeth. The church is good, and was enlarged and restored in 1869 and 1873. It consists of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and embattled western tower. There are Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Primitive, and New Connexion Methodist chapels, a colliery literary institute, a church institute, a police station, and a cemetery formed in 1881.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Willington from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Willington)

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for County Durham is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Willington are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering county Durham online:

• Hartlepool Mail
• Northern Echo
• Durham County Advertiser
• Teesdale Mercury