Norton, Durham

Description
Norton, a village and a parish in Durham. The village stands on a hill, with a station on the Clarence and Stockton railways, 1 1/2 mile N of Stockton; has an avenue of trees in its chief street; has also at its N end a large green, surrounded by well-built houses; was once a market-town; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (T.S.O.) under Stockton-on-Tees. The parish includes the manor of Blakiston, and comprises 4653 acres of land and 11 of water; population of the civil parish, 3780; of the ecclesiastical, 3778. The manor belongs to the Bishop of Durham. Norton House is a chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; net value, £490 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Chester. The church is cruciform and good; has a Transition Norman nave, an Early English chancel, and a central Norman tower; was made collegiate by Bishop de Carileph; and contains some stall-work, the mortuary chapel of the Blakistons, a very fine effigy of a knight, an altar-piece brought from a Benedictine convent on the Continent, and several memorial windows. The church was thoroughly restored in 1876. There are Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels, a Friends' meetinghouse, and an endowed grammar school. The grammar school has existed since 1600, and has £55 a year from endowment. Bernard Gilpin was vicar, and Christopher Middle-ton, who attempted in 1745 to discover the North-west passage, was a resident.