Cockfield Parish (County Durham), 1848

COCKFIELD, a parish in the union of Teesdale, S.W. division of Darlington ward, S. division of the county of Durham, 12 miles (N.W. by W.) from Darlington; containing, with the township of Woodland, 944 inhabitants. This parish comprises 4,416a. 20p., whereof 400 acres form a common of uninclosed land; the soil is clay, with a substratum of freestone of a most excellent and durable quality, the ancient church of Darlington, which was built with it, being still in high preservation. The great basaltic dyke, bisecting a dyke of earlier formation, runs through the parish; and there is coal, the mines of which, though they have been wrought for nearly five centuries, are even now slightly productive. An extension of the Stockton and Darlington railway, from St. Helen's station to Cockfield, is of great convenience for the transport of produce. The living is a discharged rectory, with the vicarage of Staindrop, lately annexed, valued in the king's books at £9. 18., and in the gift of the Duke of Cleveland: the tithes of the parish have been commuted for £220, and the glebe consists of 16 acres, with a house. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. On Cockfield Fell are traces of ancient intrenchments. This was the birthplace of the ingenious Jeremiah and George Dixon, of whom the former, more particularly, was employed in scientific investigations of importance.