Spennymoor, Durham
Historical Description
Spennymoor, a market-town and an ecclesiastical parish formed in 1875 from Whitworth parish, Durham, with a station on a branch of the N.E.R., 4 miles NE of Bishop Auckland,and 6 S from Durham. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office, a church, and Baptist, Wesleyan, Free, Primitive, and Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapels. There are also a town-hall, a theatre, baths, a market-hall, a Freemasons' hall, two banks, a police station, and the Victoria Park of 10 acres, opened to the public in 1889. The town is governed by an urban district council consisting of twenty-one members, nine being returned by Spennymoor, nine by Tudhoe, and three by Menington Lane. A weekly market is held on Saturdays. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; net value, £294 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church, erected in 1857 and enlarged in 1870, is in the Gothic style, and consists of nave, chancel, aisles, S porch, and a western tower, which was erected in 1891 to the memory of Mr Robert Duncombe Shafto, and has a peal of eight bells. The church contains several memorial windows.
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for County Durham is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Spennymoor 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: