Haswell, Durham

Description
Haswell, a township and an ecclesiastical parish in Eas-ington parish, Durham, on the Durham and Sunderland railway, 6 1/4 miles E by N of Durham. The township includes the hamlets of High and Low Haswell, and has a station on the railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Sunderland. Acreage, 3225; population, 6276; of the ecclesiastical parish, 3782. The surface, about the beginning of the 19th century, was nearly all moor, but now is mainly under cultivation. Coals of a superior quality are very extensively mined, and are sent for shipment at Hartlepool, Seaham Harbour, and Sunderland. An explosion took place in one of the mines in 1844, causing a loss of 90 lives. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; net value, £280. Patron, the Bishop. The church of St Paul, erected in 1867, is a building of red brick, consisting of nave, chancel, and N aisle with a porch. There are also a church mission room, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and Bible Christian chapels, and colliery schools, built in 1873.