Place:


Washington  County Durham

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Washington like this:

WASHINGTON, a village, a township, and a parish, in Chester-le-Street district, Durham. The village stands 1 mile NNW of Washington r. station, and 6 SE by S of Gateshead; and has a postal letter-box under Washington station. The station is on the Northeastern railway, at the intersection of the Stanhope and Tyne railway, and has a head post-office, designated of the county of Durham, and a telegraph office. ...


The township comprises 1,894 acres. Real property, £8,739; of which £1,690 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 1,224; in 1861, 1,829. Houses, 353. The manor was held, in the 12th century, by the family of Wessington; and passed, in the time of Richard III., to the Washingtons, a descendant of whom was the famous George Washington, first president of the United States. There are collieries, blast furnaces, iron-works, brick-works, and extensive chemical works.—The parish contains also Usworth and Barmston townships, and comprises 5,335 acres. Pop. in 1851, 3,485; in 1861, 5,981. Houses, 1,133. The property is not much divided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value, £610.* Patron, the Bishop of Manchester. The church was rebuilt in 1832. The rectory of Usworth is a separate benefice. There are three Methodist chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, an endowed school with £33 a year, and charities £6.

Washington through time

Washington is now part of Sunderland district. Click here for graphs and data of how Sunderland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Washington itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Washington, in Sunderland and County Durham | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1214

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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