Benfieldside, Durham

Historical Description

Benfieldside, a township and an ecclesiastical district formed in 1847 from Lanchester parish, Durham, and comprising the two small towns of Blackhill and Shotley Bridge. The township lies on the river Derwent and on a branch of the N.E.R., 4 miles N of Cold Rowley, and has a railway station. It is a watering-place, with coal mines in the neighbourhood, and its post town is Medomsley. Acreage, 1619; population, 6269; of the ecclesiastical district, 2683. The church is at Shotley Bridge.

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 Benfieldside from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Benfieldside 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