Darlington St Cuthbert, Durham, England Genealogy

Darlington St Cuthbert

Parish History

St Cuthbert's parish as an ancient parish including the following places Archdeacon Newton, Blackwell, Bondgate,Brankin Moor, Cockerton,Prebend and Preistgate, Darlington Borough,Oxney and Oxneyfield.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £274; patron and impropriator, the Duke of Cleveland. The church, which was rebuilt by Bishop Pudsey in 1160, was formerly collegiate for a dean, who held a prebend, and four other prebendaries, and had four chantries, exclusively of the free chapel of Badelfielde, or Battlefield, near Baydale beck: the establishment was dissolved in 1550, and the property became vested in the crown, under which a part is held by the Duke of Cleveland, and the remainder by other individuals. This ancient church is a spacious and elegant cruciform structure, in the early English style, with a square embattled tower rising from the centre, and surmounted by a spire, the upper part of which, having sustained damage from lightning, was rebuilt in 1750; some of the details are in so early a period of the style, as to be scarcely distinguished from the Norman. The nave is separated from the aisles by lofty columns, of dissimilar design, supporting finely pointed arches; and between it and the chancel are four lofty clustered columns, which support the tower: in the chancel are three stone stalls of an earlier date than the rest of the building; and the western extremity of the nave, and the ends of the transepts, are fine specimens in the early English style. A district church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected in 1838, on a site given by the Duke of Cleveland, at an expense of £3700, of which £600 were granted by the Incorporated Society, and the remainder raised by subscription; it is a handsome structure of stone, in the early English style, with a tower, and contains 1110 sittings. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Archdeacon of Durham; net income, £150. A church district named St. John's was endowed in 1845 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners: the living is in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop, alternately. There are places of worship for Particular Baptists; the Society of Friends; Independents; Primitive, Association, and Wesleyan Methodists; and Roman Catholics.

From: 'Darlaston - Datchet', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 8-15. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50914 Date accessed: 20 March 2011.

Parish Records

The Parish Registers for the period 1590-1981 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Da.SC).

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/73 August 1762- January 1893 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records. In addition the Burial Ground registers for the Darlington Friends ar located at DDR/EA/PBT/2/71 from 1865-1897 the transcript of burials in St Cuthbert's Darlington. Engineering work will in future improve acess to the parishes at present under "Darlington" in the transcript collection at FamilySearch Historical Records

The current images for this parish have not been completely loaded and a reload for the year range displayed from 1794/5 to 1820 awaits future engineering work.

The dates of the post-1760 transcripts have been noted in detail and sometimes only cover years. For most parishes in the collection there are gaps in the sequence of transcripts. It is advisable to consult the original parish registers for these years and events.

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Census records

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Poor Law Unions

Darlington Poor Law Union, Durham

Probate records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Durham Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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