Wolsingham, Durham

Description
Wolsingham, a small town and a parish in Durham. The town stands on the river Wear, which is here crossed by a fine iron bridge built in 1893, 10 miles NW of Bishop Auckland, is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, carries on the manufacture of woollen cloth, and does mucli business in connection with neighbouring coal, iron, lead, and limestone works. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Darlington, a station on the N.E.R., a police station, a town-hall, a mechanics' institute, a library, a church rebuilt in 1848, Roman Catholic, Particular Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels, an endowed grammar school, and eight annual fairs. There is a large steel work outside the town. Acreage of the civil parish, 24,378; population, 7533; of the ecclesiastical, 2600. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. The parish includes Towlaw, Thornley, and part of Frosterley. The manor belongs to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. A moated seat of the bishops was in Wascrow Park. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham; net value, £689 with residence Patron, the Bishop of Chester.