A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



tion, afterwards (1856) the United Methodists and now 

 the Free Methodists, built a chapel in Regent Street 

 in 1838, and the Wesleyan Reformers, who united 

 with them, opened a meeting-place in Mill Lane in 

 1 85 I. The New Connexion, now also Free Metho- 

 dists, held their first services in 1862, and opened 

 Zion Chapel, in Norton Road, in 1864. 



The Independents formed a congregation about 

 1799, "iceting in Green Dragon Yard, Finkle Street, 

 and built a chapel in West Row in 181S. From this 

 there was a secession in 1842. The seceders, styling 

 themselves Congregationalists, had a meeting-place in 

 Tennant Street, and in 1845 built a chapel in Nor- 

 ton Road.'^ A second, Christ Church, Yarm Road, 

 was built in 1878. The Welsh Congregationalists 

 have a chapel in Barrett Street dating from 1866. 

 The older congregation at West Row called themselves 

 Scotch Presbyterians and became part of the United 

 Presbyterians.^'' There are now two congregations of 

 the Presbyterian Church of England in Stockton : 

 St. Andrew's, Tower Street, built in 1861 in succes- 

 sion to West Row, and St. George's, Yarm Road, 

 1876. The Welsh Methodist or Welsh Presbyterian 

 church in B.irrett Street goes back to 1870. 



The Particular Baptists had a meeting-place in the 

 middle of the i8th century, and in 1809 converted a 

 warehouse in West Row into a chapel.^' The Baptists 

 have now three pl.ices of worship : the Tabernacle, 

 Wellington Street, which represents the original con- 

 gregation (1869); Northcote Street (1885J; and 

 Lightfoot Grove (1904) ; and there is a Welsh Baptist 

 chapel called Bethesda in Portrack Lane, established 

 in 1870. 



The English Presbyterians of the post-Restoration 

 time, now Unitarians, had a minister in 1688, and met 

 in a room in Bolton House Yard afterwards occupied 

 by the Methodists. In 1 699 they built a meeting-house 

 on Mill Garth, opposite the parish church. This was 

 registered in i 706, and a trust deed was agreed upon 

 in 1709. The chapel, which was rebuilt in 1756, 

 was closed from 1817 to 1820 on the dismissal of 

 Samuel Kennedy. There was a library in it. The 

 Unitarians removed to a new chapel in Wellington 

 Street in 1873.^'* 



The Society of Friends, established in Norton as 

 early as I 671,-''" had a meeting-place in Stockton before 

 1724, when it is found marked on a plan of the 

 town.''" This was in Dovecot Street until 18 14, when 

 a new one was built further up the street in Mill 

 Lane, now Dovecot Street. 



The Salvation Army, the Plymouth Brethren and 

 various religious bodies have meeting-places in the 

 town . 



After the Reformation Catholicism appears to have 

 died out completely with the exception of the families 

 of Sayer and Witham in Preston. A new beginning 

 is said to have been made in 1783, and a chapel in 



Playhouse Yard is noted on Brewster's plan of 1 796. 

 This remained in use until St. Mary's, in Norton 

 Road, a building designed by Pugin, was opened in 

 1842.*' A chapel of ease at Portrack, the Sacred 

 Heart, is served from it. At the south end of the 

 town a school chapel, St. Cuthbert's, was opened in 

 1884. 



A Jewish synagogue was opened in Skinner Street 

 about 188; ; it was rebuilt in 1906 in Hartington 

 Road. The Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, had a 

 meeting-place in Brunswick Street in 1857.''- 



The public baths at the north end of the town 

 were first opened in 1859'" and rebuilt in 1892. 

 The union workhouse, in Portrack Lane, was built in 

 1 85 1 in place of an older one in Bishop Street.''^ 

 The fire engines were in old times kept in the church 

 porch, and later in Brunswick Street.''^ Now the fire 

 brigade station is in West Row,^'' and the county 

 police station, where the courts are held, was about 

 1870 removed from West Row (Borough Hall)*' to 

 Church Row. 



The electric telegraph, then in the hands of private 

 companies, was introduced in 1853,3 line from Leeds 

 to Hartlepool passing through the town ; another line 

 crossed Stockton in 1864."* The Corporation now 

 owns the gas and electric lighting works, which are at 

 the north end of the town, and the water supply is 

 under the control of the Tees \'alley Water Board, on 

 which the borough has five representatives. Gas was 

 first supplied under an Act obtained in 1822'" ; the 

 works were in the hands of a private company until 

 I 857, when they were purchased by the Corporation.'" 

 The electric lighting works date from 1890." The 

 first Act for a good supply of water was obtained in 

 1851,'- and reservoirs were established at Carlton and 

 elsewhere, more recently in Dinsdale. A water board 

 for Stockton and Middlesbrough on purchasing the 

 undertaking was established In 1876,''' and this became 

 the Tees Valley Water Board in 1899.^'' The Cor- 

 poration has a fever hospital, parks, library and 

 cemeteries. In 171 8 the first order for paving the 

 town was made, and two public pumps were provided." 



In Dovecot Street are the Temperance Hall, opened 

 in 1865,''' the rooms of the Young Men's Christian 

 Association, founded here in 1861,'' and the alms- 

 houses. The Temperance Society was founded in 

 1830 at the Friends' meeting-house."* The first 

 almshouses were built near the old parochial chapel 

 about 1682 and rebuilt in 1816''; they were sold 

 in 1896, and the present houses built in 1 902. 



The Grammar school, founded without any endow- 

 ment in 1785 in West Row,''" was removed to Skinner 

 Street in I 848, and is now in Norton Road. There 

 is also a secondary and technical school maintained by 

 the Durham County Council. A Blue Coat school 

 founded by public subscription in 1721, at first for 

 boys, but later for boys and girls, became a public 



^' Richmond, Pror. Noncortf. in Snckinn, 



57-. 



^ Richmond, Local Rec. p. 195 ; For- 

 dycc, loc. cit. 



^^ Fordyce, loc. cit. 



** The story is given fully, with extracts 

 from the registers, &c., by Richmond, 

 Prot. Nomonf. in Stockton^ 10—48 ; of. 

 Fordyce, ioc. cit. 



^* Prot. Nonconf. in Stockton^ 56. 



'" Richmond, Local Rec. 



" Kelly, Engl. Calh, Misiioni, 374, 



•"^ Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 166. 



*^ Heavisides, op. cit. So. 



** Richmond, Local Rec. p. 202, 



^^ The Fire Brigade began as a volun- 

 teer corps. 



^ Fordyce, op. cit. ii, 184. *' Ibid. 178. 



*^ Richmond, Local Rec. pp. 2lg, 265. 



*^ Act incorporating the company (Local 

 and Pers. Act, 3 Geo. IV, cap. 3 3). Another 

 Act was obtained in 1846 (ibid. 9 & 10 

 Vict. cap. 216). 



'" Ibid. 20 & 21 Vict. cap. 52. 



5' Ibid. 53 & 54 Vict. cap. 88. 



" Ibid. 14 & 15 Vict. cap. 90. 



" Ibid. 39 & 40 Vict. cap. 230. 



" Ibid. 62 & 63 Vict. cap. 51. 



" Brewster, op. cit. 88. 



^* Heavisides, op. cit. p. 214. 



^' Richmond, Local Rec. p. 253. 



^' Ibid. p. 158. 



" Brewster, op. cit. 89 ; Richmond, 

 op. cit. 186 ; Heavisidts, op. cit. 82 ; 

 Char. Com. Rep. xxiii, I 14. 



™ Brewster, op. cit. 94. 



