Billingham, Durham

Historical Description

Billingham, an ancient village, township, and parish in Durham. The township lies on the river Tees, and on the Clarence and Hartlepool railway, 3 miles NNE of Stockton-on-Tees, and has a station on the N.E.R., and a post office under Stockton-on-Tees; money order and telegraph office, Norton. Acreage, 8155; population of the ecclesiastical parish of Billingham, including Cowpen-Bewley, 827; of Haverton Hill parish, which includes the ironworks at Port Clarence and the farm of Saltholme, in the township of Cowpen-Bewley, 2675. The Hartlepool railway passes through the parish of Billingham in an easterly direction, and the Clarence line in a south-easterly direction to the river Tees for Port Clarence and Middlesborough. The parish includes also the township of Cowpen-Bewley, and the hamlet of Bellasis. Billingham parish is mother of the two daughter parishes of Wolviston and Haverton Hill, the former an ancient chapelry, the latter created a parish in 1860. The land is owned about equally between the Dean and Chapter of Durham and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with the exception of the large farm of Saltholme, in the township of Cowpen-Bewley, which belongs to the University of Durham. Billingham Hall is a chief residence. A great battle was fought in the parish in 900 by Eardulph, King of Northumbria. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; net value, £289 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church is Late Saxon and Transitional Norman, has a tower 70 feet high, and contains a chancel-screen and three brasses. There is a small Wesleyan chapel.

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 Billingham from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Billingham 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