Stranton Parish, 1848

STRANTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Stockton, N. division of Stockton ward, S. division of the county of Durham; containing, with the townships of Brierton and Seaton-Carew, 2106 inhabitants, of whom 1491 are in Stranton township, 2½ miles (S.W. by W.) from Hartlepool, on the road to Stockton. Since the formation of the harbour at Hartlepool, this place has become the scene of busy employment in ironfoundries, ship-building yards, and other works connected with maritime trade. A harbour and docks were opened at Stranton in the summer of 1847. Limestone abounds, and used formerly to be quarried to a great extent, and the lime shipped coastwise. The Stockton and Hartlepool railway approaches close to the sea-coast at New Stranton, and is carried along the verge of the sea by an embankment of puddled clay. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £17. 16. 0½., and in the patronage of Sir M. W. Ridley, Bart., with a net income of £303; impropriators, John Stephenson, Esq., and others. The great tithes of Stranton township have been commuted for £103, and the small for £220. The church, which is situated on an eminence in the centre of the village, exhibits specimens of various styles; the tower serves as an excellent landmark to mariners. At Seaton-Carew is a second incumbency. The Wesleyans have a place of worship. There is an excellent school at Stranton, founded by the Rev. Christopher Fulthorpe, with an endowment of £30 per annum, for which fifteen children receive instruction; and in the hamlet of Middleton, in the parish, is a commodious national school, built in 1840. An immense quantity of human bones was discovered in draining a morass adjoining the Slake, supposed to have been those of the Scots who fell at the siege of Hartlepool in 1644: on a farm called Tunstal, about two miles south-west of the spot, are vestiges of an encampment.