HASWELL is a township and parish, formed out of Shotton-with-Haswell May 20, 1870, and including High and Low Haswell and Haswell Colliery, situated 3 miles west from Easington, 7 east from Durham, 9 south from Sunderland and 12 north-west from Hartlepool, in the South Eastern division of the county, Castle Eden petty sessional division, Easington union, county court district of Seaham Harbour, rural deanery of Easington (southern division) and archdeaconry and diocese of Durham. The Sunderland and Hartlepool branch of the North Eastern railway has a station here. The town is supplied with gas by the Haswell Gas Company and with water by the Haswell and Shotton Water Company Limited. The church of St. Paul is an edifice of red brick, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, north aisle and porch, and has one bell: in the chancel are two large stained windows: there are 400 sittings. The register dates from the year 1867. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Durham, and held since 1870 by the Rev. William Robert Oldroyd, of the University of Durham. The church mission room has 130 sittings. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels and a chapel for Bible Christians. Here is an extensive colliery, in which, Sept. 28, 1844, a calamitous explosion occurred, causing a loss of nearly 100 lives. The Haswell coal is of superior quality, and is sent by railway to be shipped at Sunderland, Tyne Dock and the Hartlepools. The land is chiefly the property of George Dering esq. who is lord of the manor, Mrs. Baker-Baker, of Elemore Hall, T. C. Thompson esq. and the Colliery Co. The soil is light and loamy; subsoil, limestone. The chief crops are wheat, oats and potatoes. The township comprises 3,116 acres; rateable value, £17,314; the population of the whole township in 1801 was 93, and in 1861 it had increased to 4,165, and in 1881 to 6,156; it owes its prosperity to the extensive coal mines situated in the township.

Haswell Colliery Schools (mixed & infants), built in 1873 by the Haswell, Easington & Shotton Coal & Coke Co. for 720 children; average attendance, 550.