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Wolsingham in Durham County England History and GeographyWOLSINGHAM, a market town and parish in the north-western division of DARLINGTON ward, county palatine of DURHAM, 16 miles (W.S.W.) from Durham, and 259 (N.N.W.) from London, containing 2197 inhabitants. The town, which is irregularly built, is situated on the north bank of the Wear. In 1824, a new town hall was erected and covered with a roof, but it yet remains unfinished, for want of funds to complete the work. There are manufactures of linen, woollen cloth, edge-tools, and implements of agriculture, in which, and in the neighbouring coal, lead, and limestone works, a great proportion of the population is employed. The market and fairs are held by grant from the Bishop of Durham; the former is on Tuesday, and the latter are on May 12th and October 2nd, for cattle and all sorts of merchandise. The county magistrates hold a petty session for the division here, every Wednesday, and a court leet and baron, under the Bishop of Durham, as lord of the manor, is held twice a year, at which debts under 40s. are recoverable: its jurisdiction extends to Stanhope, Bishopley, North and South Bedburn, Lynsack, and Softley. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Durham, rated in the king's books at £31. 13. 4., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Durham. The church, situated on rising ground to the north-west of the town, and dedicated to St. Mary and St. Stephen, is a neat plain building with a low tower, and has a font of Weardale marble, beautifully variegated with petrifactions of shells, &c. There are places of worship for Baptists and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. The grammar school, founded in 1613, with a residence for the master, was rebuilt, in 1786, upon a piece of waste land granted by the Bishop of Durham and the landholders of the parish, by whom it was endowed with sixteen acres of land. On the enclosure of the moor, seven acres and a quarter more were added, for the maintenance of the master: eighteen boys are appointed by the trustees, who are nine in number. Several bequests in money, particularly by Jonathan and George Wooller, have since been made, amounting to about £200, for the interest of which eight additional boys are taught on this foundation. Forty girls are also instructed in another school, supported by the Misses Wilson, of this place; and there are Sunday schools attended by about one hundred and sixty children. Contiguous to a field, called Chapel-Walls, are the remains of an extensive building, surrounded by a moat, supposed to be those of the manor house of the Bishop of Durham, attached to Wolsingham park. There are two chalybeate springs in the neighbourhood, and a sulphureous spring about two miles east of Wolsingham, on an estate called Bradley. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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