In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Middleton in Teesdale like this:
MIDDLETON-IN-TEESDALE, a small town, a township, and a parish, in Teesdale district, Durham. The town stands on the river Tees, at the terminus of the Tees Valley railway, and at the boundary with Yorkshire, 9 miles NW of Barnard-Castle; has a r. station with telegraph; is irregularly built and singularly situated, on the sides of hills, around an extensive green at their base; is environed by lead mines, chiefly belonging t o the Duke of Cleveland, and mostly let to companies for one-sixth of the ore extracted; is a polling-place for South Durham: and has a post office ‡ under Darlington, two good inns, a town hall, a market-house, a church, three dissenting chapels, an endowed school, a weekly market on Saturday, and fairs on the third Thursday of April, 7 July, and the second Thursday of Sept. ...
The church is ancient, and presents the peculiarity of having a detached bell-tower. The dissenting chapels are for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists. The town is a good centre for visiting the romantic scenery of Upper Teesdale, including the famous cataracts of High Force and Caldron Snout. Baths and wash-houses for the workmen of neighbouring lead-mines, and for the public, were built in 1869.-The township comprises 10,434 acres. Real property, £7,693; of which £1,676 are in mines. Pop. in 1851,1,849; in 1861,2,266. Houses, 415. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of lead-mining.—The parish contains also the townships of Egglestone, Newbiggin, and Forest and Frith. Acres, 40,250. Real property, £39,713; of which £27,853 are in mines, and £20 in quarries. Pop. in 1851,3,972; in 1861,4,557. Houses, 801. The surface on the S border, along the course of the Tees, is picturesque. Wynch bridge, about 2 miles above the town, spans the river across a rocky chasm 60 feet deep; is a slight and rocking structure on the suspension principle; and succeeded a still slighter one, constructed about 741, and supposed to be the earliest suspension bridge in Europe The river, at the chasm, first goes wildly round reefs of basalt, and then rushes down a cataract in sheets of foam. The surface N of the town is wild and moorish, and includes a large tract called Middleton Common. The lead-mines are partly in Middleton township, but chiefly in Egglestone; and they are worked by levels or hushings. So much as about 4,000 tons of pig-lead is sent annually from Teesdale for shipment at the mouth of the Tees. The living is a rectory, united with the chapelries of Forest and Harwood, in the diocese of Durham. Value, not reported.* Patron, the Crown. The p. curacy of Egglestone is a separate benefice. Charities, £38.
Middleton in Teesdale through time
Middleton in Teesdale is now part of Teesdale district. Click here for graphs and data of how Teesdale has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Middleton in Teesdale itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Middleton in Teesdale, in Teesdale and County Durham | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/4269
Date accessed: 23rd April 2024
Not where you were looking for?
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time, and maybe some references to other places called "Middleton in Teesdale".