Whitburn, Durham

Historical Description

Whitburn, a village and a parish in Durham. The village stands on a rising-ground, a quarter of a mile from the shore, 2½ miles E of Cleadon Lane station on the N.E.R., and 8½ N of Sunderland. It is frequented in summer for sea-air and bathing, carries on considerable fishing, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Sunderland. The parish contains also Cleadon village, and comprises 3937 acres of land and 327 of foreshore; population, 2738. There is a parish council consisting of nine members, and there are limestone quarries and a colliery. Whitburn Hall, the seat of the baronet family of Williamson, is the chief residence. Roman coins have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham; net value, £1200 with residence. Patron, the Bishop. The church is an ancient building in the Early English and Decorated styles, and was restored and enlarged in 1868. It consists of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, and a western tower with small spire, and contains numerous stained windows and a fine stone font. There are a mechanics' institute opened in 1881, a cemetery of 4 acres under the control of a burial board, a coastguard station, a volunteer rocket apparatus company, and near here the Souter Point Lighthouse, with electric light on the S side of the entrance to the river Tyne. At Cleadon there are a mission church and a Wesleyan chapel, and at Marsden a mission room and a Primitive Methodist 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 Whitburn from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Whitburn 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