Sockburn Yorkshire Family History Guide

| |
Updated on
Links marked with a * mean that we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. It all helps to keep the site online and free for everyone.

Sockburn is an Ancient Parish partly in Durham and partly in Yorkshire.

Other places in the parish include: High Sockburn, Over Dinsdale and Girsby

Parish church: All Saints

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1580
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1762

Nonconformists include:

Adjacent Parishes

Sockburn Parish Registers

Baptism Records

Sockburn Baptisms 1762-1839

Marriage and Banns Records

Sockburn Marriages 1593-1883

Death and Burial Records

Sockburn Burials 1762-1836

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

SOCKBURN, a township in Durham, and a parish partly also in N. R. Yorkshire, but all in Darlington district. The township lies within a fold of the river Tees, 3 miles ENE of Dalton-Junction r. station, and 6½ SE by S of Darlington; and is celebrated in the legendary ballad of “Sockburn Worm.” Acres, 653. Real property, £848. Pop., 59.

The parish includes two other townships, and comprises 2,638 acres. Post town, Darlington. Pop., 231. Houses, 41. The manor belonged to the Conyerses, and passed to the Blacketts. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £190. Patron, not reported. The church is early English.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

SOCKBURN (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Darlington, partly in the S. W. division of Stockton ward, county of Durham, but chiefly in the wapentake of Allertonshire, N. riding of York, 7 miles (S. E.) from Darlington; containing 201 inhabitants, of whom 42 are in the township.

This is supposed to be the Saxon Soccabyrig. In the time of Canute, Snaculf gave to the church of Durham “Socceburg and Grisbi;” and soon after the Conquest the place became the seat of the Norman family of Conyers.

The parish comprises the townships of Sockburn, Over Dinsdale, and Girsby; the first, which is wholly in the county of Durham, contains about 1000 acres. Among other late improvements, a bridge of wood, consisting of one arch of upwards of 150 feet span, has been thrown across the river Tees by the lord of the manor and owner of the lands within the township, Henry Collingwood Blackett, Esq.

The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £3. 18. 1½.; net income, £190; patron and impropriator, the Master of Sherburn Hospital. The great tithes of Sockburn township have been commuted for £68, and the small for £48: the vicar has a glebe of 3 acres.

The church has been partly taken down, and a new building erected on the opposite side of the Tees, in a situation more convenient for the parishioners, chiefly at the expense of Mr. Blackett and the master of Sherburn Hospital. The old edifice contains some ancient monuments, one of which is said to be that of Sir John Conyers, representing him with his feet resting upon a lion that appears to be contending with a winged dragon.

In an adjoining field is the Grey Stone, where, according to legendary story, the dauntless knight slew the “monstrous venomous and poisonous wyveron, ask, or worm, which overthrew and devoured many people in fight.”

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

  • County: Durham; Yorkshire
  • Civil Registration District: Darlington
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Stockton
  • Poor Law Union: Darlington
  • Hundred: Stockton Ward; Allertonshire
  • Province: York