Widdrington, Northumberland

Description
Widdrington, a village, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish in Northumberland, and a station on the N.E.R., 7 1/2 miles NE by N of Morpeth. The township contains Druridge and Linton hamlets, has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Acklington, and a railway station, and gave the title of Baron in the time of Charles I. to the Widdringtons. Acreage, 3899 of land and 245 of foreshore; population, 947; of the ecclesiastical parish, 1006. There is a parish council consisting of eight members. The manor belonged from the time of Henry II. till 1715 to the Widdringtons, passed through the Warrens to Lord Vernon, and is now the property of the Taylor family. After Lord Widdrington's attainder in 1715 the castle fell into decay, and was destroyed in the latter part of the 18th century by Sir G. Warren. The castle built by him on its site was burnt down in 1780. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Newcastle-on-Tyne; net value, £176. The church was built in the llth or 12th century, and restored and enlarged in 1874. There are United Presbyterian and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a colliery at West Moor.