Winlaton, Durham Genealogy

= Parish History =

Winlaton has two periods of church history. The first chapel known as Winlaton Mill in ecclesiatical records for the diocese was built at Winlaton in 1705 (said to be on the foundation of St. Anne's Chapel, destroyed in the rebellion of the Earls 1569), It was capable of containing three hundred persons, and a stipend was provided for the Minister. The Chapel (which had been previously abandoned by the Company) fell into decay in 1816 and was rebuilt as a large School-room paid for by public subscription, aided by gifts from the National and Diocesan School Societies, and from Lord Crewes' trustees. The church service wass voluntarily performed in this school-room (under the Bishop's sanction) by the Rector of Ryton or his Curate whenever other duties left him free; but there wass no settled stipend or establishment at Winlaton.

Winlaton St Paul was created in 1832 from Ryton Ancient Parish.It included Chopwell. Parts of this parish subsequently formed the parishes of Chopwell St. John the Evangelist (1916); High Spen St. Patrick (1986); Rowlands Gill St. Barnabas (c. 1904); Swalwell Holy Trinity (1905)

= Parish Records =

The Winlaton Mill Chapel transcripts at Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections Date: 1798-March 1812 Related material at DULASC: All Winlaton Mill transcripts are included with Ryton transcripts DDR/EA/PBT/2/215

The Winlaton St Paul Reference number: DDR/EA/PBT/2/275 Date: 1833-1850 Related material at DULASC: Winlaton St Paul transcripts September 1828-1832 are included with Ryton transcripts September 1828-1850

At present Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search. It is also necessary to examine the Ryton transcripts for September 1828-1832. Engineering work is necessary to correctly load the Winlaton Mill Chapel transcripts and correct a mistaken heading to Winlaton St Paul which reads "Alnwick St Paul".

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 Ryton are also available at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL:-


 * Winlaton 1828-1992 (EP/Win).

= Sir Ambrose Crowley =

Ambrose Crowley began his career in the seventeenth century in Stourbridge, where his father, another Ambrose Crowley, had built up a big iron business. After his mother’s death, family circumstances changed: his father remarried and becames a Quaker. The young Ambrose left in 1689, taking with him expertise gathered in the iron trade. He began in London, he gathers capital to invest in the North-East: first in Sunderland, then at Winlaton, on the fast-flowing Derwent (a tributary of the Tyne). Using the cheap shipping from London to Sunderland (ships were travelling in ballast) he developed in Sunderland an iron nail works. Traditionally iron nails were a Midlands manufacture.

During the period 1707-9 his undertakings in Co. Durham contained two slitting mills, two forges, four steel furnaces, many warehouses, and innumerable smithies producing a wide variety of ironmongery.

From entry for Sir Ambrose Crowley in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

He imports iron from Sweden and converts it to a variety of artefacts that he sends to London, where he has a warehouse at Greenwich and a shop, the “Doublet”, in Thames Street.

He went on to become the biggest ironmonger in the London, with contracts to supply all the naval dockyards.Knighthood and a career in politics followed.The firm which Crowley founded was continued by his son John and by his grandsons and lasted well into the reign of Queen Victoria, prospering from all the wars in the century following his death in 1713.

= External references =

Ambrose Crowley &amp; http://webspace.webring.com/people/lg/gv23.geo/sirambrose.html