Whitworth - 1910

Whitworth is a village and parish near the River Wear, 4 ½ miles north-east of Bishop Auckland and 6 south-west from Durham in the Bishop Auckland division of the county, south-east division of Darlington ward, Bishop Auckland petty sessional division and county court district, Auckland union, rural deanery and archdeaconry of Auckland and diocese of Durham. The parish is governed by the Spennymoor Urban District Council. The church (name unknown) is an edifice of stone, in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and western turret containing one bell: the church underwent thorough repair in 1850, at a cost of five hundred pounds, defrayed by public subscriptions, and sittings for 100 persons: in the churchyard are two ancient monuments with figures, one of a knight in full armour with visor closed, and the other a female; these effigies are supposed to represent members of the Neville family. The register dates from 1564. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value two hundred and fifteen pounds, including 20 acres of glebe, with residence in patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and held since 1904 by the Reverend James Marmaduke Hick M.A. of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The vicarage house is pleasantly situated about a quarter of a mile from the church. Whitworth Park, the property and residence of Miss Rosa Duncombe-Shafto , extends over 300 acres: the mansion, a magnificent building in the modern style, destroyed by fire in 1876, was rebuilt in 1892. The manorial rights belong to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Miss Rosa Duncombe-Shafto is the principal landowner. The soil is clayey; subsoil rock. The chief crops are wheat and oats. The area of Whitworth is 973 acres of land and 8 of water; rateable value, fifteen thousand seven hundred and forty two pounds. The population in 1901 was 6, 240; the population of the ecclesiastical parish in 1901 was 1,072. Whitworth Without is a parish formed in November 1894 by Local government Board Order No. 31,709, and comprises that portion of the old civil parish not included in Spennymoor Urban District. The area is 579 acres of land and 4 of water; rateable value one thousand eight hundred and sixty five pounds; the population in 1901 was 78. Old Park is a township, 3 miles south and 3 ½ miles north-east from Bishop Auckland. The Church of St. Barnabus, erected in 1876-77, at a cost of five hundred pounds, is an iron structure, and will seat 200. There is a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, built in 1903; Primitive Methodist, built in 1886. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are lords of the manor, and Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. Ltd., are the principal landowners. The area is 414 acres; rateable value, two thousand one hundred and nineteen pounds, the population in 1901 was 873. Post Office, Binchester Blocks - William Chapman, sub-postmaster Council Schools, Binchester (mixed & infants), built in 1877, for 330 children; average attendance, 206; James Nutley, master.

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