Description

Auckland, St Helen, a township and a parish in Durham, on the river Gaunless and on the Stockton and Darlington branch of the N.E.R., 3 1/2 miles SW of Bishop-Auckland. It has a station called West Auckland on the railway, and a post office under Bishop-Auckland; money order and telegraph office, West Auckland. Acreage, 1510; population of the civil parish, 923; of the ecclesiastical, 4096. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; net value, £400 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Durham. The church is very ancient, the registers dating from 1593. The eastern part of nave is doubtless as early as the llth century. There is also a very fine old hall–St Helen Hall, the property of the Musgrave family. The banqueting room in this hall has a magnificent carved ceiling. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the collieries.