HOLMSIDE, with part of the township of BURNHOPE and Hamsteels, was formed into an ecclesiastical parish June 30, 1865, from the parishes of Chester-le-Street and Lanchester: it is 3 miles north-east from Lanchester station on the Consett branch of the North Eastern railway, and 8 north west from Durham, in the North Western division of the county, Lanchester union and petty sessional division, Durham county court district and rural deanery, archdeaconry and diocese of Durham. The church of St. John, erected in 1870, is an edifice of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, west porch, and has one bell; there are sittings for 140 persons. The register dates from the year 1870. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of Durham alternately, and held since 1882 by the Rev. Richard Brent M.A. of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Service is held in Hedley Memorial school, Craghead, every Sunday, and in the Mission room at South Moor Colliery. Here are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels. There are some extensive collieries in the township. The Earl of Durham is lord of the manor. The landed proprietors are Miss Allgood, J. T. Hedley esq. Sir Henry Clavering bart. and Mrs. Gee and several others. The soil is light on the hills and clayey in the valleys, the latter yielding good crops of hay, wheat and beans. The area of the parish is 4,007 acres; the population in 1881 was 2,754.

Schools: —

Colliery (mixed), built in 1855, for 300 children; average attendance, 220; Henry Langdon Burgess, master; & are supported by the principal coal proprietors of the township &. neighbourhood.

National (mixed), built in 1877, for 266 children; average attendance, 204; James Low, master; the schools are in part supported by Bitton’s charity.

Hedley Memorial National (infants), Craghead; built in 1888, for 100 children; average attendance, 90.