Seaham, Durham

Historical Description

Seaham, a parish in Durham, and also the name of a township formerly entirely included in the parish of Seaham, but now divided-part, including Seaham Colliery and village, with a population of 4691, having been in 1864 formed into a separate parish called the Vicarage of New Seaham, with a church and residence and income of £500 gross. The colliery village is situated 1 mile from Seaham Harbour and 6 miles from Sunderland, and has a station on the Seaham and Sunderland railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office. The parish of Seaham, which consists of the larger part of Seaham township and the whole of the township of Seaton-cum-Slingley, in all 2209 acres, with a population of 330, extends 2 miles along the coast northwards from Seaham Harbour to Eyhope, and runs inland 3½ miles towards Houghton Ie Spring. It is an ancient parish, having been included in King Athelstane's donation to the shrine of St Cuthbert in 925. The parish church, which is Early English, with a pre-Conquest chancel, stands near to Seaham Hall, one of the residences of the Marquis of Londonderry, who is lord of the manor and patron of the living, which is a vicarage; gross value, £350 with residence. The register contains, the marriage of Lord Byron (date 1815). The parish has not a parish council, but the Parish Councils Act, which treats townships as parishes, gives a parish council to the township of Seaham of fifteen parish councillors and three district councillors, and has united the township of Seaton-cum-Slingley with the township of Burdon, in the parish of Ryhope, to return one district councillor.

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 Seaham from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Seaham 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