Cornforth Township, 1848

CORNFORTH, a township, in the parish of Bishop's-Middleham, union of Sedgefield, N E. division of Stockton ward, S. division of the county of Durham, 6¼ miles (S.S.E.) from Durham; containing 700 inhabitants. It comprises about 1,570 acres. Coal is obtained, which is shipped on the Tees; and a vast quantity of limestone is quarried from a hill, at the bottom of which the village lies, in a low and warm situation: the houses are disposed in the form of a square, with a green of several acres in the centre. The impropriate tithes have been commuted for £108. 6. 6., and the vicarial for £28. 10. Dr. Hutchinson, a learned writer, was born here. An extensive burial-ground was discovered a few years since, in a field on the summit of the high ground on the south of the village: the graves are made in all directions, and at no great depth, in the magnesian limestone; in one was found the umbo of a shield, and in another the head of a spear.