Bellingham, Northumberland

Description
Bellingham, an extensive parish and a small market and union town, head of a county court district and petty sessional division, in Northumberland. The town stands on the left bank of the North Tyne, at the mouth of Hareshaw Burn, adjacent to the Border Counties railway, 16 miles NNW of Hexham. It has a station on the railway, a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.), a town-hall, a church, Presbyterian, Free Methodists, and Roman Catholic chapels, and three public schools; is of small extent, but of local importance. Markets are held on Saturdays; and fairs on the Wednesday before Good Friday, chiefly for the hiring of shepherds, and on certain Saturdays of May, July, August, September, October, and November. There is also an agricultural society, which has an annual show here in September. The church is of the 13th century, was restored in 1865 and renovated in 1885, and has a finely groined stone roof. A waterfall of 30 feet, on the Hareshaw Burn, is in the neighbourhood. The parish includes also the townships of Charlton-East Quarter, Charlton-West Quarter, Tarretburn, Nook, and Leemailing. Acres, 19,483 of land, and 241 of water; population, 1268. The manor belonged, in the tune of Richard II. and Henry IV., to the De Bellinghams; passed to the Earls of Derwentwater, went to Greenwich Hospital, and was sold to the Duke of Northumberland, The royalties are leased to Lord Armstrong for working ore. Hesleyside, the seat of the Charlton family since the time of Edward IV., stands on a rising ground on the right bank of the Tyne, 1 1/2 mile above the town. The present mansion was built about the middle of last century, and occupies the sites of a previous one of elaborate character, destroyed by fire. Much of the parish is moor and sheep-walk, and many parts of it have cairns, tumuli, and Druidical stones. Game is plentiful, and coal, ironstone, and limestone are worked. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Newcastle; net value, £163 with residence. Patrons, the Lords of the Admiralty.