Belford, Northumberland
Historical Description
Belford, a township, a parish, a union town, and head of a county court district in Northumberland. The town stands on a gentle eminence, about a mile W of a station of its own name on the N.E.R., 14½ miles SSE of Berwick. It is neatly built; contains a church, two dissenting chapels, and a workhouse; has a post, money order, and telegraph office, a market-place, and two chief inns; and is a seat of petty sessions. The church is in the Early English style, and has a lofty tower. Fairs are held on 2 July for lambs and 25 Sept. for ewes. The township includes the town, and comprises 2861 acres; population, 854. The parish includes also the townships of Ross, Elwick, Easington, Easington-Grange, Middleton, and Detchant. Population, 1390. Belford Hall is the seat of the Atkinson-Clark family, who are lords of the manor and chief landowners. Traces of an ancient chapel are on a rising-ground near the town, and remains of a very strong Danish camp, encompassed by a deep ditch, are not far distant. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Newcastle; value, £111.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Northumberland | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Belford St. Mary | |
Poor Law union | Belford | |
Ward | Bambrough |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Belford from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Belford (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northumberland is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Belford 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 related to Northumberland online: