Whitley Township, 1848

WHITLEY, a township, in the parish and union of Tynemouth, E. division of Castle ward, S. division of Northumberland, 3 miles (N.) from North Shields; containing 749 inhabitants. The township comprises 515 acres of arable land; the soil is a good loam, and the subsoil clay. Coal, of an inferior quality for household purposes, but excellent for the use of steam-engines, is wrought here, though now nearly exhausted; and a considerable quantity, wrought in the adjoining township of Monkseaton, is raised from a pit near the village, and conveyed by a tramway to the lower part of Shields, whence it is exported. Ironstone abounds in the neighbourhood; and limestone is extensively burned, the produce of a quarry here, interesting to the geologist as forming the northernmost point of the magnesian limestone stratum which extends from Shields to near Nottingham. In the lower beds of the formation is contained an abundance of fossil fish, but as the quarry is not worked deep, the specimens are not often exposed. The limestone appears to have been entirely covered by a bed of sulphate of barytes, varying in thickness from a few inches to 27 feet. There are two places of worship for Methodists. The impropriate tithes of part of the township have been commuted for £124.