Auckland, St. Andrew

AUCKLAND, ST. ANDREW, a parish, in the union of Auckland, partly in the S. E., but chiefly in the N. W., division of Darlington ward, S. division of the county of Durham. In the S. E. division are the townships of Byers-Green, Coundon-Grange, Eldon, Middlestone, Midridge, Midridge-Grange, Old-Park, Westerton, and Windleston; while the N. W. division includes the market-town of Bishop-Auckland, the chapelries of St. Helen Auckland and Hamsterley, and the townships of St. Andrew, West Auckland, North and South Bedburn, Barony, Binchester, Coundon, Evenwood, Hunwick with Helmington, Lynesack with Softley, Newfield, Newton-Cap, Pollard's Lands, Shildon, and East Thickley; the whole containing 19,100 inhabitants, of whom 1367 are in the township of St. Andrew, 1 mile (S.) from Bishop-Auckland. This extensive parish comprises by computation 11,195 acres, and contains six considerable villages; it abounds with coal and limestone, and its surface is highly varied. The Stockton and Darlington railroad passes through it; and in 1837 an act was obtained for constructing the Bishop-Auckland and Weardale railway, which branches from the Stockton and Darlington at Shildon, and passes within a quarter of a mile of Bishop-Auckland, which see.

The living is a perpetual curacy, with the chapelry of St. Anne; net income, about £550, nearly half of which arises from a bequest by Bishop Barrington; patron, the Bishop of Durham; impropriators, the Landowners of the parish. The tithes attached to the living have been commuted for £46. 10.; and there is a glebe valued at £117 per annum. The church, a spacious cruciform structure, was made collegiate for the secular canons ejected by Bishop Carileph from his cathedral of Durham, in 1082; and in 1292 was endowed by Bishop Beck for a dean and nine prebendaries: three or four additional prebends were founded by Bishop Langley, in 1428. At the Dissolution, the deanery was valued at £100. 7. 2., and the prebends at £79. 16. 8.: the dean's house and some of the prebendal houses have been converted into residences for farmers. There are distinct incumbencies at Byers-Green, Coundon, Escomb, Etherley, Hamsterley, St. Helen's, and Shildon; also places of worship for Independents, Ranters, the Society of Friends, and others. The union comprises 33 parishes and places, and contains a population of 21,979.