Muggleswick Parish, 1848

MUGGLESWICK, a parish, in the union of Lanchester W. division of Chester ward, N. division of the county of Durham, 14 miles (S.W.) from Gateshead; containing 421 inhabitants. This place, anciently Muggesley, was granted by Bishop Pudsey to the convent of Durham in exchange for Hardwick; and in the thirteenth century, Hugh, Prior of Durham, inclosed a park here, with a chapel, hall, and dwellings, and apartments underground for secreting cattle during the incursions of the Scots. The park, now inclosed, was in 1662 the scene of several seditious meetings, at which numerous conspirators had for their object to destroy the reformed clergy. The parish is bounded on the north by the river Derwent, and comprises by computation 5,921 acres, whereof 1,232 are pasture and meadow, 950 arable, 340 wood, and about 3,400 moorland and common; it abounds in game, and the right to shoot is leased by the Dean and Chapter, who are lords of the manor. Along the bank of the river is a range of hills, in which are some very productive mines of lead-ore containing silver, for smelting which there is a mill in the neighbourhood; and at Castle Side, a village whose population is on the increase, are two mills. In the reign of Charles I., Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, held these mines. Cold Rowley, in the parish, is a hamlet on the summit of the bleak heights between the vale of Lanchester and the Derwent. The Stanhope and Tyne railway passes through the parish. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter, the appropriators, and has a net income of £93. The church was rebuilt in 1829, at a cost of £300. Dr. John Carr, the translator of Lucian's Dialogues, was born here.