COTHERSTONE (or Cotherston) is a township and well-built village, with a station on the Tees Valley branch railway, 3 miles north-west from Barnard Castle; it is a favourite resort in the summer season for visitors from Sunderland and Newcastle, the air being considered very healthy and the locality abounding in walks along the river Tees and up the Balder Vale, the scenery of which is very beautiful. The church of St. Cuthbert, a chapel of ease to Romaldkirk, and erected in 1881, is a building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave and a western tower containing a clock and 6 bells, presented by Jonathan Pearson esq. of Notting Hill, London, in memory of his mother, who died in 1872: the clock, put up in 1885, was purchased out of money left by Anthony Benjamin Nicholson esq. of Cotherstone. The Rev, James William Brent has been curate since 1910. The tithe, amounting to £108 yearly, goes to the rector of Romaldkirk. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1859 and rebuilt in 1872: the Congregational chapel was first founded in 1748, and the present building was erected in 1869, and will seat 160 persons: there is also a place of worship for the society of Friends. At Baldersdale are two large reservoirs for supplying water to Stockton-on-Tees, Thornaby-on-Tees and Middlesbrough, under the management of the Tees Valley Water Board. A Burial Board of 8 members was formed in 1888, for the joint parishes of Cotherstone and Lartington: 5 being appointed by the Cotherstone Parish Council, and 3 by the Lartington parish meeting: the cemetery is three-quarters of an acre in extent. The Temperance Hall, built in 1893, is a building of stone, with library, reading and refreshment rooms, and a large room suitable for public meetings &c. Here are the remains of a castle, once belonging to the Fitzhugh family. The Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, who is lord of the manor, John Henry Bourne esq. the trustees of the late Timothy Hutchinson esq. of Egglestone Hall, Darlington, and David Magnus Spence esq. J.P. are principal landowners. The area is 8,156 acres, the principal portion pasture land, and 44 of water; rateable value, £14,106; the population in 1911 was 644.

Public Elementary schools

Mixed, for 110 children; average attendance, 31.

Wesleyan Methodist (mixed), for 80 children; average attendance, 52.