Hurworth Parish, 1848

HURWORTH (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Darlington, S. W. division of Darlington ward, S. division of the county of Durham; consisting of the townships of Hurworth and Neasham, and containing 1,599 inhabitants, of whom 1,235 are in the township of Hurworth, 3 miles (S.S.E.) from Darlington. The parish is bounded on the south by the river Tees, which separates it from Yorkshire; and comprises 3930a. 3r. 18p., whereof two-thirds are arable, and the remainder meadow, pasture, and woodland. Its soil, from the river side, for three-quarters of a mile, is a fine gravelly loam, but in other places a cold clay: the river flows over a bed of red sandstone, which, in some parts of the channel, when dry, is quarried. The weaving of linencloth is carried on to some extent. The village is inhabited by a number of genteel families, and consists principally of a spacious well-built street, beautifully placed on the brow of a hill at the foot of which flows the Tees, and commanding a fine view of the windings of that river through the vale of the Tees, and of the Cleveland bills, distant fifteen miles, which form a soft outline to the scenery. The York and Newcastle railway runs through the parish for one mile and a half, crossing the Tees by a magnificent stone viaduct of four oblique arches; the Croft station is three-quarters of a mile from Hurworth. The Croft or Hurworth branch of the Stockton and Darlington railway also runs for about one mile through the parish, nearly parallel, at a hundred yards' distance, with the York and Newcastle line, and terminates at Hurworth Place, a village recently populated, where is a depôt for coal and lead. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £27. 5. 5., and in the gift of the Rev. Robert Hopper Williamson, who is also incumbent; the tithes have been commuted for £550, and the glebe comprises 68 acres. The church, a cruciform structure with a square tower, was enlarged in 1832, at an expense of £1965, raised by subscription and the sale of pews, aided by a grant of £400 from the Incorporated Society; of 850 sittings, 406 are free. There are places of worship for Primitive Methodists and Wesleyans; and some schools aided by an endowment of £22 per annum. Skeletons are frequently dug up in the western end of the village. William Emmerson, the self-taught mathematician, who died in 1782, was born and resided here.