North Bedburn, Durham

Description
Bedburn, North, a township in Witton-le-Wear parish, Durham, forming the ecclesiastical parish of Fir Tree, near the Weardale railway and the river Wear, 5 1/2 miles NW of Bishop-Auckland, and 1 1/2 mile from Beechburn station on the main line of the N.E.R. It comprises the villages of Houghton-le-Wear, Firtree, High and Low Bitchburn, Thistle Flat, and Hargil Hill. Acreage, 2837; population,2478. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; gross value, £310 per annum, alternately in the gift of the Bishop of Durham and the Crown. There are three dissenting chapels in the township, also extensive collieries, and bricks of a superior kind aru manufactured here. There is a workman's liall, with library and recreation rooms.