In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Wolsingham like this:
WOLSINGHAM, a small town and a parish in Weardale district, Durham. The town stands on the river Wear, and on the Wear Valley railway, 10 miles NW of Bishop-Auckland; is a seat of petty sessions and county-courts; carries on the manufacture of woollen cloth, edge-tools, and agricultural instruments; does much business in connexion with neighbouring coal, iron, lead, and limestone works; is irregularly built; and has a post-office‡ under Darlington, a r. ...
station with telegraph, a police station, a town hall of 1824, recently enlarged, a church rebuilt in 1848, but retaining a previous tower, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, an endowed grammar-school with £66 a year, charities £43, a weekly market on Tuesday, and nine annual fairs. The parish includes Towlaw and Towham, and comprises 20,403 acres. Real property, £17,947; of which £2,000 are in mines, £2,172 in iron works, and £400 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 4,585; in 1861, 5,531. Houses, 1,075. The increase of pop. arose from increase of employment at the Towlaw iron-works, and from the opening of new collieries. The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to the Bishop of Durham; and a moated seat of the bishops was in W. Park. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value, £900.* Patron, the Bishop of Chester. The vicarage of Thornley is a separate benefice.
Wolsingham through time
Wolsingham is now part of Wear Valley district. Click here for graphs and data of how Wear Valley has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Wolsingham itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Wolsingham, in Wear Valley and County Durham | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5664
Date accessed: 18th April 2024
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