Whitburn
The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £39. 19. 4½., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Durham: the incumbent's tithes have been commuted for £862. 15., and a rent-charge of £6. 1. 8. is payable to the master of Kepier grammar school; the glebe comprises 210 acres, lying in three detached parts of the parish. The church is a neat and ancient edifice, consisting of a nave, chancel, aisles, and a good tower; the whole was thoroughly repaired some years since, and portions modernised. The parsonage stands embosomed amid lofty sycamores, and its sheltered garden contains plants which do not usually flourish in a district so exposed and northerly as this county. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans; also a national school, endowed with £10 per annum by Lord Crewe's trustees. Dr. Triplett in 1664 bequeathed a rent-charge of £18, since increased to £61, which is appropriated to apprenticing boys and girls of the parishes of Whitburn, Washington, and Woodhorn. In the neighbourhood are several springs, the water of which is slightly impregnated with alkaline salt, and was formerly in great request among the inhabitants. On the sea-shore, some copper coins of Constantine, Licinius, Maxentius, and Maximian, have been discovered. Flexible limestone is found in the quarries; and on the beach, near the village, at a very low ebb-tide after a storm, some years since, were observed the trunks of large trees, supposed to be the remains of a forest, imbedded in what appeared to have been a clayey soil: hazel-nuts were also found, scattered among them.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.