Bishopton Parish, 1848

BISHOPTON (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Sedgefield, S.W. division of Stockton ward, S. division of the county of Durham; containing, with the townships of Newbiggin and Little Stainton, 473 inhabitants, of whom 362 are in Bishopton township, 6 miles (W. by N.) from Stockton. The parish comprises 4016a. 3r. 10p., of which 2102 acres are in the township, and of these latter 1,273 are arable, 790 pasture, 12 woodland, and 20 waste: the soil is various; gravel of good quality is obtained in abundance for the highways. The Clarence railway, and the Stockton and Darlington railway, run in a direction nearly parallel on each side of the village, which is pleasantly situated on an eminence, about a mile and a half from the former, and 4 miles from the latter. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £4. 5. 10., and in the patronage of the Master of Sherburn Hospital: the tithes of the parish, belonging to the vicar, the master of the hospital, and the lessee of the corn tithes, have been commuted for £639. 1.; and there is a glebe of 67 acres. The church was partly rebuilt in 1790. In a field at the eastern extremity of the village is a large mound, with vestiges of an intrenchment, which is supposed to have been part of the fortifications that guarded the mansion of the faithful Roger de Conyers, from whom William de St. Barbara, elect Bishop of Durham, received powerful assistance in his struggle against Comyn, the usurper of the see, about the middle of the twelfth century.