Heighington, Durham
Historical Description
Heighington, a township and a parish in Darlington union, Durham. The township lies 1½ mile W of the Stockton and Darlington railway, 2¼ miles E of a Roman road, and 6 NNE of Darlington, and has a station on the railway and a post, money order, and telegraph office (E.S.O.) under Ay-clifie. Acreage, 2209; population of the township, 638; of the ecclesiastical parish, 992. The parish contains also the townships of Walworth, Eedworth, and School Aycliffe. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; gross value, £345 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church, built between 1140 and 1170, has a Norman chancel-arch and some Norman windows in its tower, and contains a richly-carved pulpit of the reign of Henry VII., being a pre-Eeformation erection with the inscription in Latin, " Pray for the souls of Alexander Fletcher and Agnes his wife." There is a magnificent peal of six bells, three of which were the gift of the Neville family, by whom the church was built. The parish contains the beautiful castle of Walworth, built by Sir John Hansard in the reign of Henry II., he having married a daughter and coheiress of the Earl of Westmorland. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | County Durham | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Heighington St. Michael | |
Poor Law union | Darlington | |
Ward | Darlington |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Heighington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Heighington (St. Michael))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for County Durham is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Heighington 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: