Bellingham

1839 "The Penny Cyclopedia" by The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Bellingham is in the north-west division of Tindale ward, 16 miles north-north-west of Hexham, and 294 from London. The parish (one of those formed by the division of Simonburn parish, A.D. 1811) comprehends the township of Bellingham, and the ‘quarters’ of East Charlton, West Charlton, Leemailing, the Nook, and Tarretburn, with an aggregate area of 15,540 acres, and a population, in 1831, of 1,460, of whom 464 were in the town of Bellingham. The town is pleasantly situated on a declivity on the left bank of the North Tyne, and comprehended, in 1831, only 82 inhabited houses. The chapel is a small ancient building with a finely groined stone roof. There are a Catholic chapel and a Burgher meeting-house. A few hands are engaged in manufacture. There is a small weekly market on Saturday; and two yearly fairs, one of them a small cattle fair. The living is a rectory, of the clear yearly value of £194, with a glebe-house. There were in the township, in 1833, two day-schools (one of them with a small endowment), with 67 children ; and in the other quarters of the parish five day-schools with 105 children.