Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for NORTON

NORTON, a village and a parish in Stockton district, Durham. The village stands on a hill, near the junction of the Clarence and Stockton railways, 1¾ mile N of Stockton; has an avenue of trees in its chief street; hasalso, at its N end, a large green, surrounded by well-built houses; was once a market town; and has a post-office under Stockton-on-Tees. The parish includes the manor of Blakeston, and comprises 4, 614 acres. Real property, £12, 706; of which £1,000 are in ironworks. Pop. in 1851, 1, 725, in 1861, 2, 317. Houses, 507. The increase of pop. arose from the erection of ironworks. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to the Ecclesiastical Co missioners. Norton House is a chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £378.* Patron, the Bishop of Chester. The church is cruciform and good: has a transition Norman nave, an early English chancel, and a central tower; was made collegiate by Bishop de Carileph; and contains some stall-work, the mortuary chapel of the Blakestons, a very fine effigies of a knight, and an altar-piece brought from a Benedictine convent on the continent. There are chapels for Quakers and Wesleyans, an endowed grammar-school, and charities £33. The grammar-school has existed since 1600; and has £40 a year from endowment. Bernard Gilpin was vicar; and Christopher Middleton, who attempted in 1745 to discover the Northwest passage, was a resident.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Norton AP/CP       Stockton RegD/PLU       County Durham AncC
Place: Norton

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