Hetton le Hole, Durham Genealogy

England Durham

Parish History
The Parish of St Nicholas Hetton-le-Hole was created from a chapelry within the ancient parish of Houghton le Spring, Durham. The parish was created in 1838.

HETTON-LE-HOLE, a township and chapelry, in the parish and union of Houghton-Le-Spring, N. division of Easington ward and of the county of Durham, 2 miles (S.) from Houghton-le-Spring; the township containing 4158 inhabitants. The chapelry comprises 2530 acres, of which 1315 are arable, 993 meadow and pasture, and 222 wood; of the whole, 1598 acres are in the township: the surface is undulated, and the soil a light loam. It includes the populous hamlets of Hetton proper, Easington-Lane, Downs, and Great and Little Eppleton; and is a mining district, with three extensive collieries in full operation. Hetton colliery, one of the most considerable in the kingdom, was commenced in 1822, and its produce, which is of the first quality, is sent almost entirely to the London market; 500,886 tons have been raised in a year, and as many as 2000 persons have been employed at one time in the colliery and on the works connected with it: the proprietors have a private railway, by which the coal is conveyed to the river Wear at Sunderland. The Durham and Sunderland railway has a station here. There are three quarries, the stone of which is used for building, or burned into lime; and two corn-mills, one worked by steam, and the other by water. The village is pleasantly situated in a vale, about two miles distant from the Durham and Sunderland road, and is a polling-place for the northern division of the county. The chapel, which is in the later English style, with a campanile turret, was erected in 1832, at an expense of £1406, defrayed by subscription; it contains 500 sittings, of which 375 are free. On the late avoidance of the living of Houghtonle-Spring, the chapelry was endowed with the tithes of the district, commuted for £208. There are places of worship for Baptists, Kilhamites, Presbyterians, and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. In a field on the right side of the road from Great Eppleton to Hetton, is a tumulus, consisting of a collection of small stones, at the top of which is a cavity, called the Fairies' cradle.

From: 'Heswall - Hexham', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 497-501. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51028 Date accessed: 24 March 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Parish registers from 1832-2006 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/134 1832-1835 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records.

The dates of the post-1760 transcripts have been noted in detail and sometimes only cover years. For most parishes in the collection there are gaps in the sequence of transcripts. It is advisable to consult the original parish registers for these years and events.

The following records for churches in the ancient parish of Houghton-le-Spring are also available at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL:-


 * Chilton Moor 1876-1987 (EP/CM).
 * Hetton-le-Hole (EP/HH)
 * Eppleton 1887-1990 (EP/Ep).
 * Hetton Downs
 * Lyons (or Easington Lane) 1869-1973 (EP/EL.SM)
 * Newbottle 1842-1976 (EP/Ne).
 * West Herrington 1841-1847 EP/Ho).

FamilySearch Historical Records includes England, Durham Diocese, Marriage Bonds and Allegations (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Non Conformist Churches
The Family History Library has a book of Baptisms that cover the Methodist Circuit from 1864-1918 It is an alphabetical Index by surname

Poor Law Unions
Houghton le Spring Poor Law Union, Durham

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Durham Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.