Know Your Parish

Heddon-on-the-Wall Northumberland

By A S Angus

Heddon-on-the-Wall lies seven miles west of Newcastle and, as its name indicates, is on the line of the Roman wall, a length of which may still be seen to the east of the village. In the centre of the village the ancient parish church of St. Andrew stands upon a rocky eminence near the Junction where the 'Military Road', was built after the 1745 Rebellion upon the foundations of the Wall. A modern dual carriageway now by-passes the village to the north, while to the south the ground falls away quite steeply to the River Tyne.

The old parish consisted of the six townships of Heddon-on-the-Wall, East Heddon, West Heddon, Houghton and Close House, Whitchester and Eachwick. After the Norman Conquest they formed part of the Barony of Styford, bestowed by Henry1 on Hugh de Bolbec, whose grandson Walter de Bolbec in 1165. granted all rights and patronage in the church at Reddon to the monks of Blanchland. Following this the Saxon church was rebuilt, so that few traces of the original building remain, but the present church still contains some fine examples of Norman architecture.

The history of the church and parish are the subject of a paper presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1885 by Cadwallader Bates, and published in AA3, vol. XI. The paper by Cadwallader Bates includes a map showing the boundaries of the townships which made up the parish, and also the boundary which separated Castle Ward from Tynedale Ward and which split the parish into two a point to be remembered when searching the Census returns. It is recorded in the parish register by Vicar Armstrong that in 1792 the boundaries of were perambulated by the Vicar, Churchwardens, and some of the principal inhabitants. The churchwardens at the time were Anthony Laws and Andrew Grey, and other names in the party included Peascod, Gilhospy, Robson, Mason, Shotton and Blakey. The parish is ‘bounded on the South by the river Tyne; on the opposite side is the parish of Ryton. To the west the parish is bounded partly by Ovingham parish & partly by Stamfordham Parish, and on the North partly by Stamfordham Parish and partly by Newburn Parish, and on the East totally by Newburn Parish.' There is no mention of Ponteland Parish, which also bounds the northern side. The parish was extended to include the township of Rudchester, formerly in Ovingham parish.

Some of the families associated with Heddon-on-the-Wall are given by Cadwallader Bates. They include Read of Close House and West Heddon, Fenwick of Close House, Fenwick of East Haddon, Turpin of Whitchester, Fenwick and Scurfield of Eachwick, Bell and Spearman of Eachwick, and Fenwick of heddon-on-the-Wall. One family connected with Eachwick was that of the poet, Mark Akenside .Other leading families mentioned by Bates are those of Creswell and Barkas.

The parish registers, which commence in 1656, have been deposited at Woodhorn along with the churchwardens’ accounts and other records. Some extracts from the registers were published in the parish magazine and copies of these are in the library of the society of Genealogists. It is worth noting that some register entries have been transcribed from one book to another, and have not always been copied correctly; some appear three times. The Bishop's Transcripts for the years April 1727 - March 1728 and 1762-1848 are held in Durham University Department of Palaeography.

In 1751 'dicer Armstrong estimated the population at 650, made up of 130 families of which 12 were dissenting (Presbyterians). Three years later these figures were 754, 175 and 13 respectively. The population in 1801 was 603, increasing to 813 in 1851 and 1145 in 1891.

The Churchwardens' Accounts, which start in 1671, include lists of those attending the meetings of the 'Four and Twenty' ; the surnames of those at a meeting in April 1745 were Armstrong (Vicar), Fenwick and Pattison (Churchwardens), Barkas, Softley, Laws, Thomson, Burrell, Clennell, Fairlas and Hunter. It is worth comparing these surnames with those of the house-holders of Heddon-on-the-Wall included in the hearth Tax Returns for 1664 Fenwick, Hill, Winship, Oxley, Barkas, Creswell, Softley, Cooleing, Ladler, Hopper, Colson and Bewick.

Valuable information regarding East Heddon Township is contained in the Ridley papers in Woodhorn Archives. East Heddon came into the possession of Alderman Matthew White of Blagdon before 1716, and through him it passed to the Ridleys. From the estate documents it is possible to trace the tenancies of the various farms over the next two centuries. The tenants in 1756, for example, were named Laws, Davison, Gillespy and Lee.

The Tithe maps and apportionments (1839-1851) are also at Woodhorn. The names of the landlords and tenants appear on the apportionments and have recently been indexed. Hodgson's Pedigrees also contain a great deal of information about local families. Unfortunately the parish of Heddon-on-the-Wall is not included in Boyd's Marriage Index.

My own interest in Heddon is in the Laws family who farmed at Heddon Laws, Breckney Hill and East Heddon from about 1670 to 1850. The fact that some of their names are included in a list of pupils kept by William Robson, who was schoolmaster at Combo from 1784 to 1807, leads me to believe that he must have taught in the vicinity of Heddon-on-the-Wall before going to Combo. It might be worthwhile consulting his notebook (NRO) because he placed various signs against the names of his pupils to indicate, for example, when marriages took place between them.

The parish of Heddon-on-the-Wall has always been predominantly agriculture, but some coal mining has been carried out in the area, and a waggonway connected Heddon with the Wylam waggonway before 1787. The Bates family also owned a cement works. More recently the village has tended to become a dormitory for the city of Newcastle, but in spite of its proximity it retains much of its rural character.

Editors Notes

St Andrew parish records of baptisms, marriages, and burials are available at Woodhorn www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=1665.

The IGI Batch number for Heddon on the Wall is F866851

Bishop Transcripts can be found from the following link for Heddon on Wall http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#c=1309819;w=89;p=imageBrowser

The NDFHS hold the following indices and transcriptions for the parish marriages and Monumental inscriptions. http://www.ndfhs.org.uk/Sales/prices/NI_47.html

On-line resources

Heddon village website www.heddon.currantbun.com/index6.htm

“An historical, topographical, and descriptive view of the county of Northumberland” http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4RpNAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=topographical+northumberland&as_brr=1

The Beauties of England and Wales, J Britton page 106http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=st4uAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA106&dq=John+Britton+heddon&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=1

Northumberland Communities http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/Heddon-on-the-Wall.htm

Heddon on the Wall www.geocities.com/captkenn/heddon.html