Bedlington, Northumberland Genealogy

= Parish History =

St Cuthbert's Church Bedlington is an ancient parish and was consecrated about 900, and it is thought that the body of St Cuthbert rested here on December 12th 1069, during the wanderings which culminated in his interment at Durham. Some Norman and Saxon traces remain but the church was remodelled in the eighteenth century and there was much rebuilding in the nineteenth. It is located on Church Lane, Bedlington.

BEDLINGTON (St. Cuthbert), a parish and division, in the union of Morpeth, N. division of the county of Northumberland, 5½ miles (S. E. by S.) from Morpeth; containing 3155 inhabitants, of whom 2023 are in the township of Bedlington. This district was purchased about the beginning of the tenth century by Cutheard, second bishop of Chester, who gave it to the see, by which means it was annexed in jurisdiction to the body of the county palatine of Durham lying between the Tyne and the Tees; it anciently had courts and officers of justice within its own limits, appointed under commission from the Bishop of Durham. The town or village stands on high ground, in a pleasant situation, and consists principally of one long street of considerable width, forming a kind of sloping avenue to the river Blyth, which glides past, between steep banks. The parish, commonly called Bedlingtonshire, and including the townships of North Blyth, Cambois, Choppington, Netherton, and East and West Sleckburn, is on the coast of the North Sea, and is bounded on the north by the Wansbeck, and on the south by the Blyth, which is navigable for small craft, and affords facility of conveyance for the produce of the Bedlington iron-works. At these works, which are among the oldest and most extensive in the kingdom, are manufactured chain-cables, bolts, bar and sheet iron, and all the heavier articles in wrought iron, which are conveyed to the port of Blyth, where they are shipped for London: the buildings occupy an exceedingly romantic site, the banks on each side of the river rising to a considerable height, while the impatient waters hasten rapidly along, and, in passing over a dam, form a very beautiful cataract. There are also some extensive collieries, and several quarries producing grindstones, scythe-stones, and whetstones of superior quality. Petty-sessions are held occasionally. The living, of which the net income is £454, is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £13. 6. 8., and in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, who are also appropriators. The great tithes of the township have been commuted for £361. 10., and the vicarial for £40. 8. 4.; there are 234 acres of vicarial glebe. The church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert, whose remains are said to have rested here, on the flight of the monks from Durham upon the approach of the Conqueror, in 1069; it was enlarged and repaired in 1818. At the eastern extremity of the village is a petrifying spring, called Spinner's Well.

The parish of St Paul Choppington was created to serve the colliery at Choppington:

A small unpretentious 'colliery church', it was built to serve the growing mining village of Choppington. Architecturally it is simple and uncluttered, set in a spacious churchyard containing some fine beech trees. The processional cross is in memory of those who lost their lives in the two Choppington pits - both closed in the early 1960s. The brass altar cross is of unusual design and of particularly fine workmanship. Once a colliery church, St Paul's now serves a parish of several large housing estates. [The Newcastle Diocesan Gazetteer (1982), page 19.]

= Parish Records =

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/19 1760-1858 for Bedlington Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search. The Choppington transcripts are at DDR/EA/PBT/2/55 for 1869-1871. The Bedlington transcripts have yet been loaded on Record Search and await engineering.

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.

Bedlington, St Cuthbert: Records of baptisms 1653-1950, marriages 1653-1955 and burials 1653-1937 are available at Northumberland_Collections_Service. The International Genealogical Index (I.G.I.) includes baptisms 1643-1812 and marriages 1653-1812 for this parish, Boyd's Marriage Index includes marriages 1653-1812 and banns 1751-1777. Transcripts of baptisms, burials and marriages 1653-1812 are available at Newcastle Central Library, Local Studies Dept. A transcript of monumental inscriptions at Bedlington (microfiche TN72) is published by Northumberland and Durham Family History Society and these records are also available in book form at Newcastle Central Library, Local Studies Department.

Choppington, St Paul: Records of baptisms 1866-1992, marriages 1866-1993 and burials 1866-1979 are available at Northumberland_Collections_Service.