Grindon, Durham Genealogy

England Durham

Parish History
Grindon is an ancient parish but the present church dedicated to St James was built in 1886, There were two former churches in the parish. The former church of St Thomas a Becket appear on the OS map; the newer parish church of St James is near to Thorpe Thewles.

GRINDON (St. Thomas à Becket), a parish, in the union of Stockton, N. E. division of Stockton ward, S. division of the county of Durham; containing, with Whitton township, 337 inhabitants, of whom 285 are in the township of Grindon, or Thorpe, 5½ miles (N. N. W.) from Stockton, and 15 (S. S. E.) from Durham. The parish comprises 4100 acres, of which about onehalf is pasture, and several hundred acres are woodland; the surface is undulated, the soil in general a strong clay, and the scenery, which is pleasingly interspersed with plantations, embraces beautiful views of the Cleveland hills. About two miles north-east of Thorpe, is Wynyard Park, the seat of the Marquess of Londonderry, who, by his marriage with the Lady Frances Ann Vane Tempest, only daughter of Sir Harry Vane Tempest, Bart., became possessed of the Vane and Tempest estates in this county. Nearly in the centre of the park, and delightfully situated on the margin of a large artificial lake, whose sloping banks are covered with a great variety of evergreens, stands the house, a splendid mansion built by the marquess on the site of an older edifice. It was almost wholly destroyed by an accidental fire on the 20th of February, 1841, but the noble owner immediately commenced its re-erection, and it has been partly restored; the portico, constructed of very large blocks of stone, is one of the finest in the kingdom. The village is on the Durham and Stockton road, and near the Durham and Stockton railway. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £4. 11. 5½.; net income, £190; patron and impropriator, the Master of Sherburn Hospital: the tithes have been commuted for £100, and there are 52 acres of glebe, with a vicarage-house, adjoining which are 12 acres. The church, with the vicarage, stands a mile and a half from the village; it is in the early English style, and was built in 1792.

From: 'Grimstone - Grosmont', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 344-347. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50992 Date accessed: 29 March 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

The Parish Registers for the period 1565-1938 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Gr).

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/ 2/118 1762-1835 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search.

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.

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Stockton 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.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.