Place:Cowpen, Northumberland, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Cowpen is an area of Blyth and former civil parish, now in the parish of Blyth in the county of Northumberland, England. It is just east of the A189 road. The Ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,466. In 1911 the parish had a population of 21,295.

In the 12th century CE, its name was Cupum, possibly the dative plural of Old Norse kupa, "a cuplike depression or valley".

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Cowpen from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"COWPEN, a township in Horton parish, Northumberland; at the mouth of the river Blyth, 1 mile W by N of Blyth. It has a post office, of the name of Cowpen, Northumberland. Acres: 1,707. Population: 6,291. Houses: 1,238. Coal is largely worked. There is a Roman Catholic chapel."

Cowpen was a township in the ancient parish of Horton and became a separate civil parish in 1866. In 1894 it became an urban district. In 1907 the urban district merged with that of Blyth under the name Blyth Urban District. Then in 1920 Cowpen was abolished completely and the area absorbed into the civil parish of Blyth.

Research Tips

• Northumberland Archives previously known as Northumberland Collections Service and Northumberland County Record Office. Now based within Woodhorn Museum in Ashington and providing free access to numerous records for local and family historians alike.

Full postal address: Museum and Northumberland Archives, Queen Elizabeth II Country Park, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9YF; Phone: 01670 624455

There is a branch office in Berwick upon Tweed.

• Northumberland and Durham FHS covers both Northumberland and County Durham. The Family History Society have a research centre in Percy House in central Newcastle upon Tyne (full address on website), open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. Browse the website to see what else the society can provide.
• Further information from GENUKI
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1832 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time. This map includes the boundaries of the various Wards (or "hundreds") in existence at that time.
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, particularly helpful in large towns and cities.
• Unfortunately, there is no Victoria County History for Northumberland.