Offerton is a small township in the parish of Penshaw, and in Sunderland county court district, miles north-east from Penshaw station and 4 west from Sunderland, and is situated on an eminence upon a rock of limestone. The Earl of Durham is the principal landowner and lord of the manor The soil is clayey and loamy; the subsoil clay, gravel and limestone. The crops are wheat, barley, oats, turnips and potatoes. The area is 847 acres; rateable value, £5,960; the population in 1881 was 137.