England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Billingham St Cuthbert

The Parish

The parish of Billingham lies in the extreme southeast of County Durham forming not only a stretch of the county's North Sea coastline but also, across the estuary of the River Tees, the border with neighbouring Yorkshire. Billingham sits about 3 miles northeast of the industrial town of Stockton on Tees and immediately east of the busy A19 road which links Tyneside with the A1, Great North Road just beyond Thirsk. Billingham is a much changed place, old maps depict a small and compact settlement of a few hundred folk gathered neatly around St Cuthbert's church, it is industrial development that has created the urban metropolis of today's Billingham. Immediately following the Norman conquest a grange, a monastic farm complex, subsidiary to Durham Cathedral sat here and a small farming community went largely unchanged until the coming of the first railways. During Victorian times the discovery of recoverable iron deposits lead to the opening of Bell Brothers iron-works, growth spurted following the discovery of rock salt below the growing settlement and the Teesside salt extraction industry began. The presence of industrial activity, the port of Port Clarence and cheap land encouraged ICI to place their chemical plant on the northern banks of the Tees Estuary within the parish creating the public expectations of Billingham in consequence. At the time of this transcript all of this stood in the future as the community farmed mainly pastorally and exploited the estuary for its fish & shellfish. With industrial growth came modern developments, the railway line linking Port Clarence to the first passenger line cane in the 1830s and was followed by lines to Hartlepool as well as freight only lines serving the industry, in addition the A19 has been upgraded to a fast dual-carriageway highway drawing much traffic from the crowded Great North Road. As a coastal community Billingham is drained readily into the adjacent Tees and its estuary headed for the nearby North Sea. Billingham is sited at 20 metres above the sea or below in rather flat terrain, land rises gently northwestwards reaching around 60 metres within a couple of miles. Billingham parish incorporated the chapelry of Wolviston but was still extensive, the parish covered just over 5,400 acres and would have supported a population prior to the industry of around 1,600 parishioners, the population in the early 20th century exceeded 35,000. The northern limit of Domesday Book's coverage in eastern England is formed by the course of the Tees, as Billingham sits north of that line it has no mention in that tome.

The Church

St Cuthbert's church sits at the heart of the original settlement of Billingham, then it sat on the western edges of a compact village, today it is enclosed in modern developments sitting above Billingham Beck. The church has an ancient history, documentation of a church building here in the mid 9th century probably refers to the rebuild of an even earlier foundation following destruction during the Viking raids of the period. Traces of Saxon fabric remain in the church, the western front of that church being embedded in the eastern wall, the date of this very early work is disputed but Pevsner believes it to be late 7th or early 8th century. The plain western tower is also of very early date, it has no external entry point which may have been to act as a point of safety from raiders as easily defended. Again the date is disputed but the latest proposed date pre-dates the Norman conquest. Moor straightforward in dating is the post Norman work, in the 12th century a northern arcade an aisle was added to the earlier work, the equivalent southern version is later perhaps c1200. The original work of this period saw a very early clerestory added with tiny windows of that date. Further widening work took place in the 14th century with a widening of that northern aisle but then no major work until the Victorian era. Sundry restorations of 1846, 1865, 1883 and 1890 saw repeated work which included a first rebuild of the chancel before finally in 1937 -1939 a second rebuild took place as part of a major eastern extension to create a new church for what had become effectively a new town. The church is usually approached from West Road along a short dead-end Church Road where a small parking bay sits opposite to the lychgate. Sadly for the image gatherer the church sits amongst many thick trees which substantially reduce the angles available for the photographer.