Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WHICKHAM

WHICKHAM, a township and a parish in Gateshead district, Durham. The township lies near the influx of the Derwent to the Tyne, 1¾ mile S of Scotswood r. station, and 3½ WSW of Gateshead; contains a village of its own name; is a polling place; and has a post-office under Gateshead. Real property, £3,358; of which £100 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 910; in 1861, 1,277. Houses, 259. The parish contains also Swallwell, Low-side, and Fellside townships; comprises 5,905 acres of land, and 88 of water; and forms a sub-district. Pop. in 1851, 5,565; in 1861, 5,921. Houses, 997. The manor belongs to Lord Ravensworth, Sir W. Clavering, and J. Bowes, Esq. Gibside House is the seat of W. Hutt, Esq.; and its grounds contain a Doric pillar 140 feet high. Dunston Lodge is a lunatic asylum, and serves provisionally for Cumberland and Westmoreland. There are iron-works, nailand chain factories, wire-works, chemical-works, saw-mills, roperies, fire-brick kilns, extensive coke ovens, and several coal staiths. A stratum of burnt earth is near the village; is said to have resulted from the slow combustion of a seam of coal; and is used for making ornamental paths. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value, £663.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church, excepting the S walland the tower, was rebuilt in 1862. A chapel of ease is at Gibside; schoolrooms are used as places of worship in three other places; and there are four dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institute, an endowed school with £25 a year, several other schools, and charities £61.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a township and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Whickham AP/CP       Gateshead RegD/PLU       County Durham AncC
Place: Whickham

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