Whitfield Parish, 1848

WHITFIELD, a parish, in the union of Haltwhistle, W. division of Tindale ward, S. division of Northumberland, 15 miles (W.S.W.) from Hexham; containing 333 inhabitants. This place was for six centuries the property of the Whitfield family, to whom the Countess Ada, widow of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, and mother of William the Lion, King of Scotland, made a grant of it in fee, with the exception of some lands to be held under the convent of Hexham; shortly after which, the family had a grant from that establishment of nearly all Whitfield. In the middle of the last century, it came to the family of Ord, the present possessors, under whose encouragement the highways have been repaired, inclosures made, plantations formed, and by whom numerous substantial and comfortable farmhouses and cottages have been built. The parish contains 12,157 acres, of which 6,397 are moor, 5,300 arable, pasture, and meadow, and 460 wood. It is bounded on the east by the parish of Allendale, and on the south by Alston Moor in Cumberland. The inclosed lands lie near the river Allen, which flows on the east, and are hemmed in on the west and south by extensive sheep-walks, and on the north with the woody dell called King's-Wood; they comprise some tracts of excellent land, chiefly in dairy and grazing farms. The East and West Allen join their streams at Cupola, in the parish, where the London Lead Company formerly had large smelting-mills. A new line of road from Alston to Haydon-Bridge has been formed through the parish. Whitfield Hall, rebuilt in 1785, and lately enlarged, is a handsome mansion in the vale of Allen, and overlooks a fine park interspersed with luxuriant groups of forest-trees, and embracing much rural beauty. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £8, and in the patronage of William Ord, Esq., owner of the parish: the tithes have been commuted for £260, and there is a glebe of 43½ acres. The church was rebuilt in 1784, by the Ord family, who had previously erected a new parsonagehouse. The structure is very substantial, consists of a nave and chancel, with a square tower, and is capable of holding 230 persons. The chancel was rebuilt in 1839, by Mr. Ord, from designs by Mr. John Green, of Newcastle, and is ornamented with painted windows, and a carved oak roof; it contains a monument to the late William Henry Ord, Esq., M.P., a lord of the treasury under the administration of Earl Grey. At Redmires is a chalybeate spring.